CAIRO – 28 August 2020: To combat desertification, Egypt has drilled thousands of wells in remote areas and border governorates to collect rainwater, in light of the government’s efforts to mitigate water shortage the country suffers from.
In a statement, Asim Al-Jazzar, the Egyptian Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities said on Thursday that the Central Agency for Reconstruction (CAR) has drilled underground wells, and constructed small dams to collect water since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has assumed power in 2014.
A total of 6, 203 wells have been dug since 2014 in four governorates, including Sinai, New Valley, the Northwest Coast and Marsa Matrouh to combat desertification in the border governorates in order to achieve a decent economic and social level for the people of those governorates. The wells are used for drinking, agriculture and reclamation for Bedouins in remote areas.
Recently, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources signed a deal with the Center of Studies and Designs for Water Projects (C.W.P.), affiliated to the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, to study the storage of Egypt’s underground water to be used in a sustainable way.
The new deal comes as part of the second phase of a national project to benefit from the underground water, aiming at developing a long-term plan to manage and control withdrawal from aquifers in order to achieve sustainability, according to a statement from Cairo University on Wednesday.
To achieve sustainability in dealing with non-renewable water sources, the Egyptian government used the solar power system in underground wells. Solar power panels were installed to a total of 100 wells as of July 2019, according to a statement from the ministry. As of 2017, the number of underground wells in Egypt reached 70,000, Al-Ahram newspaper reported.
Solar power is one of the best mechanisms to get water, as Egypt ranked as the Arab country receiving the most sun hours per year, according to a study by the Environment and Climate change Research Institute (ECCRI) in April 2012.
