With the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations continuing to become tense, the search for alternatives to the expected shortage in the waters of the Nile River has become the talk of the hour, whether in the presidential and Egyptian government meetings or in the parliament and the media.

Egyptians consider that the intensification of the regime talking about internal alternatives to face the water shortage crisis is in fact declaring the failure of negotiations and confirming Egypt's loss of its historical share in the waters of the Nile River, especially with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s assertion of excluding the military option, the trend towards desalination of sea water and the tripartite treatment of wastewater Health, in addition to rationalizing water consumption by adopting modern irrigation and increasing the penalty for wasters, which leads to the question about the success of these plans in compensating the water deficit.

Egypt and Sudan announced the suspension of their participation in the current round of the Renaissance Dam negotiations in order to conduct internal consultations on the proposal made by the Ethiopian delegation regarding the rules for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam.

The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said, "The Ethiopian proposal does not include mandatory agreement or a legal mechanism to settle disputes."

For its part, the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation said that "Ethiopia's recent position raises new concerns about the course of the Renaissance Dam negotiations."

Water poverty and government plans

Egypt depends on a population of about 104 million people, and an area of ​​about 10 million acres of agricultural water on the Nile River by 97%, and it is one of the drier countries in the world, as 94% of its land is desert, and the population is concentrated in only 5% of its area in the Nile Valley And its indications, and the volume of the water deficit is 20 billion cubic meters, according to Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Atti.

Recently, the government resorted to raising the price of water, and Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly called for increased penalties for wasteful use of water, and the need to expand the use of water-saving tools.

Madbouly said during a meeting attended by the Ministers of Irrigation, Water Resources, Housing and Agriculture a few days ago that the Ministry of Planning approved 4 billion pounds initially for the project to cover canals to contribute to providing quantities of water to increase the agricultural area.

However, the Egyptian government's efforts to face the water crisis did not stop at these steps, as other steps preceded it, such as the expansion of the construction of seawater desalination plants, and the tripartite treatment of wastewater through a national water plan at a cost of $ 50 billion, which lasts until 2037, according to government statements.

In October 2019, Madbouly said that within less than 3 years, projects of the plan worth 110 billion pounds had been implemented, and that in less than two years, desalination plants worth 160 billion pounds would be completed by Egypt, to meet the water needs and take into account the population increase.

In January 2018, Sisi confirmed that Egypt was carrying out the largest project to desalinate sea water and triple treatment of wastewater, noting that this comes to face a "potential crisis" that he did not disclose, stressing that he will not allow the existence of a water crisis in Egypt.

But these solutions seem very modest, and they cannot compensate for the natural flow of the Nile River over a distance of more than 1500 km, as the implementation and development of 47 seawater desalination plants costing 45.18 billion pounds (the dollar is about 16 pounds) will provide Egypt with only 2.44 million cubic meters in Today only.

7⃣ # Nile_ Throttle | What is the benefit of desalination of sea water? .. 3 solutions before # Egypt🇪🇬 are available in light of timing and capabilities, but # Sisi has resorted to the most difficult solution👇 pic.twitter.com/JT3giQmHjM

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) July 17, 2020

Alternatives will not tell Egypt

The assistant professor at the former Egyptian Agricultural Research Center Abdel Tawab Barakat reduces the impact of these industrial alternatives in compensating the losses from the flow of the Nile River, saying that "there is no alternative to the Nile River in Egypt, most of which are desert lands, and the government's talk about rationalization in consumption or increased penalties will not tell Egypt".

In his talk to Al-Jazeera Net, Barakat says about trying to blame the citizens by increasing the punishment for wasteful water, that it is a priority for the government to hold itself accountable, and to reform the drinking water networks, half of which are wasted because of their wear and tear, and to use modern methods of agriculture and irrigation, as methods Watering is primitive yet.

He stressed that the only solution is in the state’s ability to protect the Egyptians ’historical water rights, and make them a priority list in all stages, because neglecting them will not replace all the steps it has talked about, such as desalination of sea water, treatment of wastewater, or rationalization of consumption.

Failure bill

In turn, the former deputy of the agriculture committee in the Egyptian parliament, Abdel Rahman Shoukry, held the Egyptian regime responsible for the deteriorating water situation in Egypt during the past years.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Shukry - a former peasant captain - says that "Sisi announced on more than one occasion his response to the crisis, and he repeated the talk about preserving Egypt's rights in the waters of the Nile River, but they were statements that lacked real actions on the ground, whether towards Ethiopia or Towards the government's policies to rationalize consumption, whether in drinking water or irrigation. "

Regarding the government's policies in dealing with the crisis, Shukri stressed that there are no alternatives to the Nile River, desalination of sea water and its transfer through new networks of expensive cities, and the citizen is the one who will bear the cost, stressing the impossibility of the comparison between providing drinking water at the expense of irrigation or vice versa.

He pointed out that the international campaign to protect Egypt and Sudan from thirst - which was recently inaugurated - aims to resolve the crisis by withdrawing Sisi from signing the Agreement of Principles with Ethiopia in 2015, and going to the International Court and the Security Council under Chapter Seven, considering that what Ethiopia is doing is a crime Against humanity and the right of the Egyptian people.

Interestingly, the former Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam Dessalines revealed a few days ago that the agreement to announce the principles signed by Sisi stipulated that the first filling of the dam will be in parallel with construction, and that Egypt concluded the agreement and knows this and approves it.