At a press conference in Alexandria yesterday, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nasr Eddin Allam announced a plan for the projection Egypt’s water needs until 2050. The plan should be finalized in nine months.
Responding to questions about the submersion of the Nile Delta as a result of climate change, the minister said that "the government will not allow any such thing to happen." Allam also affirmed that his ministry is examining possible threats, many of which have been identified by international experts, and their solutions based on three decades of engineering research.
Allam also said that the ministry is looking into how to protect investment and development projects on the North coast from the projected negative effects of climate change and pollution.
Meanwhile, Mamdouh Hamza, an international engineering expert, described the government as "a radical rightist and brutal capitalist government that is biased towards businessmen and foreign interests at the expense of the people," adding that many government officials are motivated by personal interest.
In a lecture at the Ibn Luqman Culture Salon in Mansoura on Friday, Hamza blamed the government for failing to resolve problems with other Nile Basin countries, preventing it from reaching agreements that safeguard Egypt’s water security.
Hamza warned that Ethiopia continues to build dams that may affect Egypt’s water quota.
"Can Ethiopia possibly build such massive dams alone?" Hamza wondered, adding that Israel, the US and China are supporting Ethiopian dam construction which, he says, may cause a famine in Egypt.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
