Page 25 - Respond 2018 Magazine

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Egyptian farmers depend on the Nile to irrigate their crops (Pic: Flickr/Florian Lehmuth)
The country is
Alaa al-Zawahri, an Egyptian member of the tripartite
committee studying the effects of the dam, tells Climate
Home: “There are several scenarios, but nothing certain.
Some studies predict a rise in temperature and thus little approaching the
rain, and others predict more rain”. Diaa al-Qousi, a water
specialist who worked for government, says the findings
point to heavy rains for the next 30 years, then a huge drop UN’s “absolute
the 60 years that follow.
water scarcity”
Asked if the different conclusions have been communicated
with farmers, al-Qousi says “farmers would not understand
such specialists’ findings”. Government is selective
about what it releases to media, adds al-Zawahri: “Some threshold
information, like worst case scenarios, might cause
unnecessary panic.”

In the absence of reliable information, farmers turn to Yet work on the 6GW dam, a prestige project for the
conspiracy theories and militaristic fantasies. Ethiopian government, has continued unabated.

Qatar “is funding the dam, like it is funding terrorism” to Al-Zawahri outlines some peaceful options for responding to
harm Egypt, claims Mohamed Nasr, who owns three feddans water stress. The government is looking into telemetry, water-
in Al Gharbeyya. There is no evidence for this common saving irrigation systems, and desalination. A navigational
rumour; the Ethiopian government says it is funding the course from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean is on the
project nationally. table, which would provide eight billion cubic meters more
water for Sudan and Egypt. Egypt can also manage its own
Ethiopia will not be allowed to alter the balance of water High Aswan Dam more efficiently to decrease evaporation of
supply along the river, Nasr asserts: “Egypt’s water share is water. “These plans are to be applied gradually,” he says.
internationally known. If the share is touched, the dam will
be completely removed.” Water expert al-Qousi is upbeat: “The Egyptian farmer has
been cultivating lands for seven thousand years, and has
Osama Saad, a farmer in the Upper Egypt governorate always found a way around water shortages.”
of Minya, is more explicit: “People talk about how the
president should bomb it.” The idea is not alien to higher Ghoneim begs to differ. “Farmers have traditional
level discussions around the dam. Previous leaders have knowledge, which they lived by for a long time. But this
threatened military action. knowledge is now falling short,” she says. “It is not an
awareness problem that faces farmers, it is an issue of the
state obstructing information.”

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