Wells and vegetables .. Tricks of the Egyptian peasant to face water shortages

Mohamed Elsayed-Giza

The water shortage in Egypt seems to have prompted farmers to invent new tricks and change their millennial cultivation pattern, relying on groundwater and excess salt, as well as growing vegetables because they consume less water.

In the village of Kafr Ghatati in the governorate of Giza, farmers resorted to planting leafy vegetables from "watercress, radishes, dill and parsley" to meet the lack of water on a regular basis, in addition to the recent warning of the government to grow crops that consume water.

A few days ago, the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources declared a state of emergency in the ministry because of the state's loss of nearly five billion meters of Nile water flows and its impact on agriculture.

In April 2018, the Egyptian parliament approved a bill to amend the provisions of the agriculture law to prevent the cultivation of more water-intensive crops, such as rice, sugarcane and flax, because of the potential impact of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Egypt's share of the Nile water.

Egypt's share of the Nile's water is 55.5 billion cubic meters annually, which is equivalent to about 90% of the country's needs, while the rest comes from groundwater, rain and desalination.

Ethiopia is seeking to store 74 billion cubic meters of Nile water behind the Renaissance Dam, amid experts predict it will rise to 100 billion cubic meters, after saturating the bottom of the lake and leakage through deep geological cracks, which may affect Egypt's water share.

The disaster is worse
The minister's recognition of the water crisis prompted farmers to predict the worst, as Egyptians were not accustomed to being told by the government the full facts.

Farmer Karam Mohamed says that the state of agriculture in Egypt is worsening year after year, which affects the peasant because of the government's lack of attention to its basic requirements, pointing out that with the warnings of officials and his neighbors in the agricultural land began to change crops that consume water, despite the obstacles .

Mohammed explains that he rents three acres of vegetables, where the cost of cultivating each acre about six thousand pounds (about 17 pounds), pointing out that the plants died in two acres due to lack of water, which forces him to resort to groundwater, but it causes great damage Soil because it contains many salts.

"Rice is not found in the area because it needs large amounts of water, but the water reaches us every eight days and lasts only four days," he said.

Absence of the state
Farmer Ibrahim Mousa wondered what other crops would be planted with the scarcity of Nile water following the comments of the Minister of Irrigation, saying that the safest thing is to continue growing vegetables until we know the situation in the near future, as did all the neighboring villages.

"If the Nile falls further, the government should take the initiative before the crisis becomes a disaster, and at the very least it should send agricultural engineers to guide the peasants on how to deal with the water shortage."

Moussa deplores the continued neglect by the government of the farmer, stressing that it does not know what it wants when it tends to reclaim agricultural land and at the same time impose restrictions in agriculture, as well as the seriousness of water shortages.

"Planting Bimut and our homes are ruining," said Haji Ahmed Metwalli. "We face great suffering that threatens to damage crops and poors of these lands, because of the current water shortage. To thousands of families. "

"Every day we see a new tragedy of a peasant and his planting dying in front of him, which makes us narrate the water that reaches us stagnant and see it as wastewater and not pure water."

Egypt's share of the Nile water is 55.5 billion cubic meters. Agriculture consumes most of it by 80%, while groundwater and rain are about 4.5 billion cubic meters annually, but the real needs are about 114 billion cubic meters, which made Egypt suffer from water scarcity. Within the scope of water poverty.