Egypt suffers from water poverty: CAPMAS

Egypt has reached a stage of water poverty, with an average of 663 cubic metres per citizen, and is expected to fall below 582 cubic metres by 2025, a decline of 60.3%, said a recent study by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) released Tuesday.

The study, titled “Water resources and rationing its use in Egypt”, stated that per capita use of water resources decreased from 2,526 cubic metres in 1947 to 1,672 cubic metres in 1970, a decline of 33.8%. This comes at a time when the adoption of the Ethiopia Dam Renaissance project on the Nile threatens Egypt’s water security.

According to the agency, Egypt’s share of water from the Nile remains stable at 55.5bn cubic metres per year, in accordance with international conventions signed on this issue. The usage of available water resources has increased from 66.6bn cubic metres to 74.5bn cubic metres, an increase of 23.7% over the period from 2002/2003 to 2011/2012.

Agricultural water use represents 82.6% of the total usage of available water resources, and reached 74.5bn cubic metres in 2011/2012. This number is expected to reach 78.9bn cubic metres in 2017. Total use of rainfall by Egypt and Sudan does not exceed 5%, whereas agricultural use of water from rainfall is widely practiced in upstream countries.