Hydrology: Current Research

Vision for Future Management of Groundwater in the Nile Delta of Egypt After Construction of the Ethiopian Dams

Abstract

Osama M Sallam

Many studies and researches have been published discussed water resources in the Nile Delta in Egypt and have dealt with them in different ways, these studies have always been local, and do not cover the entire Nile Delta. Furthermore, most adaptation and mitigation policies and strategies focus only on small and limited areas and do not take into account the common effects that may be seen when examining the Nile Delta from a regional perspective, such as depletion of groundwater levels, pollution, sea level rise, climate change impacts, and expected changes in the future after the completion of the Ethiopian dams. This study aims to develop a future vision for the groundwater system management in the Nile Delta in Egypt, which will take into account the existing issues and challenges, including the depletion of groundwater aquifers, quality deterioration, pollution, and sea water intrusion, moreover the arising future challenges from the completion of the Ethiopian dams and its potential impacts on the Egyptian water resources system, especially, groundwater aquifer in the delta of Nile. Also, this study prompts for reviewing, analyzing the problem and identifying future adaptation strategies that can mitigate the negative impacts of the Ethiopian dams on groundwater water system, and development a capacity for coping with any future effects and impacts. The most important conclusions of this study are; (i) the water policy in Egypt should be modified to overcome the major expected challenges of building the Ethiopian dams, (ii) the agricultural areas at the end of the irrigation canals are expected to be one of the first affected areas by the lack of surface water in the Nile Delta due to the construction of the Ethiopian dams., (iii) the use of groundwater in the Nile Delta is strongly linked to availability of Nile water and any shortage as a result of the Ethiopian dams will be covered by drilling more of groundwater wells, whether legally or illegally, (iv) the basic pillars of the future vision for groundwater management in the Nile Delta are directly related to solve the end user issues such as; fragmentation of ownership agriculture lands, applying new technologies, groundwater wells registration, and groundwater aquifer protection.