Activities - Water scarcity… Challenges and solutions

-No. of participants: 85

Under the auspices of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA Egypt office), JICA Alumni Association held a Workshop on “Water Scarcity in Egypt, Challenges and Solutions”. The workshop aimed at finding new innovative solutions to the various water issues in Egypt, discussing the challenges facing policy makers, as well as reviewing JICA’s support to the Irrigation sector in Egypt.

The workshop was attended by H.E. Mr. NOKE Masaki, the Japanese Ambassador in Egypt, Mr. OMURA Yoshifumi, Chief Representative of JICA Egypt Office, Dr. Hossam Mogazy, Former Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Dr. Hany Helal, Former Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Ashraf Al-Shehi, Former Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Khaled Negm, Former Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Abdel Aziz Qonsoa, Former Governor of Alexandria, Dr. IWASAKI Erina, Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University, Mr. WATANABE Shiro, JICA expert at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.

In his opening remarks, Mr. OMURA highlighted JICA’s support in building the capacities of the Egyptians since 1954 through conducting training programs in various fields of specialties, including the fields of Irrigation, Agriculture, Transport and Education, with more than 11,000 Egyptian trainees, who would in turn contribute to the development of Egypt in different fields.

H.E. Ambassador NOKE stressed in his speech about the importance of the workshop topic, referring to what was said by Herodotus that Egypt is the gift of the Nile, and expressing Japan’s keenness to support Egypt in the water resources management, pointing to the ongoing project of New Dairout group of Regulators, which will improve the efficiency of the use of 17% of Nile water.

-The workshop presentations as follows:

1-By Eng. WATANABE Shiro, JICA expert at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, about “JICA’s cooperation in irrigation center”.

2- By Prof. Hossam Mogazy, Former Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, about “Egyptian water resources: recent and future”.

3- By Prof. IWASAKI Irina, Professor at Sofia University in Japan, about “Issue on sustainable development of water-scarce society”.

4- By Dr. Abdel Aziz Qonsoa, Former Governor of Alexandria, about “Non conventional water resources”.

5- By Dr. Sherine Assem, Vice president of the Agricultural Research Center for Research Affairs, about “The role of Agricultural sector in water conservation”.

6- By Dr. Mohamed Bayoumi, Director of Environment and Energy Programs at the United Nations-Egypt, about “The role of UNDP in the adaptation of climate changes”.

7- By Dr. Shukria El-Marrakshy, Chairman of the board of directors of Misr Tunis Agricultural Development Company, about “Experiments on unconventional and modern water-saving irrigation techniques”.

- The most important recommendations reached at the workshop:

1- Close cooperation with the Nile Basin countries to resume projects to reduce water Losses.

2- Expanding the reuse of agricultural and industrial waste-water.

3- Expanding the use of solar energy to maintain the sustainability of the underground reservoir.

4- Incorporating the dimensions of climate change and natural resources into the country’s development plans.

5- Explain innovative solutions to reach new energy prices with a focus on the application of nanotechnology in producing new desalination technologies at a cost of no. more than 0.1 – 0.15 USD.

6- Expanding programs to recover gray water at the governorate level and reaching decisions linking it to building permits, so that the start will be from government buildings

7- Modernizing agricultural methods to provide water requirements for crops.

8- Expanding unconventional crops with high revenue and low water consumption

9- Expanding the use of molecular soil techniques to develop early ripening plant varieties and strains that consume less water and withstand adverse environmental conditions.

10- Raise the systematic awareness of individuals regarding the rationalization of consumption, which depends on transferring the benefit from rationalization of consumption to a return in the per capita income and wasting water to a loss in the per capita income.

11- The need to pay attention to awareness programs about the water footprint of all products in various sectors.