Blog Action Day 2010 : Water Crisis In The Valley Of The Nile

The Blog action Day 2010 this year is about the Water , it is a strange coincidence because the water crisis is from the major crises in Egypt this year. I can’t speak about other countries in the world because already there are many people in my country that is associated with the Nile since the dawn of history  who do not have access to clean water so forgive me if I do not seem as global citizen who instead of speaking about poor nations in need of water is seizing the opportunity to speak about her own country which is officially a third world country by the way !!

For the past four years we have known without the whole Nile Basin upstream initiative drama that we are on the gates of a major water catastrophe ,many people warned and tried to speak about the challenges facing Egypt regarding waters sources in the future but in vain. 

The crisis between Egypt and the upstream countries in the Nile basin is not new , in fact it is old and national security experts warned for ages about what was being planned there including the Israeli strange help to the Nile basin countries , especially the countries standing against us.¹

Do not ask for the latest updates about the crisis between Egypt and Nile Upstream countries because clearly the minister of water sources and irrigation is too busy in his parliamentary elections. The last statement I read from him was that there is no danger on Egypt’s water sources for the coming 50 years !! Of course nobody asked him what about after those 50 years !!??

Yes we take large quantity of water but but it does not meet our growing demand nor our growing population²,in fact our current supply of water does not meet our demand because it is unwisely wasted by wrong policies of a government that has been adopting in the past 30 years.

It is outrageous that after building the high dam and the constant promises of different governments and presidents too to raise the standard of living in the country side that there are many Egyptians in many villages and areas across Egypt that do not have access to water at all not to mention clean water !!

In 2007  in a study issued by the countryside studies center we found that 6,800,000 citizens had no access to clean water , 51.1% of them were in Nile Delta. In 2009 after the Barada disaster we found out that  38% of Egyptians drink from the sewage water despite there are billions of dollars have been spent annually on the water networks, another big X on where this money goes !!?

Last year we discovered that farmers used sewage water for decades in irrigating our vegetables across the country.

The river Nile has already suffered from several oil spills in the past three years in Egypt ,  last month there were two oil spills , the biggest was in Aswan with the leak of 100 tons of oil to the Nile !! 

Then comes the chemical and agricultural wastes , it is better to let the numbers based on scientific researches speak for their own :

• 550 million cubic meter from industrial wastes.  “including radioactive wastes”
• 5.2 billion cubic meter from agricultural wastewaters mostly toxic wastes resulted from fertilizers.
• The percentage of lead in Nile river has reached to 65% “I can’t believe it”
• The percentage of mercury has reached to 3% “higher than international standards”
• There is no accurate source for the number of human wastes in the Nile “yes human wastes dumped directly to the Nile without any treatment , I read there are 1600 villages in Upper Egypt do so”

According to 2009 report about environment in Egypt issued by the ministry of environmental affairs there are about 129 industrial facilities and 300 floating hotels are responsible for the industrial wastes , well of course you have to double or even triple these numbers because this was an official report from a year ago !!

There is no wonder that the  rates of kidney failure disease in Egypt are 4 times higher than the global rates !! 17,000 Egyptian child die annually because of water pollution and this is just the declared the numbers !! Even economical and ecological 50% of agricultural production has been affected negatively because of pollution and Nile fishermen are on the brink of extinction because 33 Nile river fish type have joined the extinct list and there are about 30 endangered species waiting for their turn !! 

I am focusing here on the river Nile but believe me things are worse at the lakes in Delta.

Anyhow despite how dark the scene is , there is always hope because this country is amazing rich in sources especially its amazing people. I remember that professors and researchers have contacted Sakina Fouad when she launched her Wheat campaign with wonderful new ecological agricultural wastewaters treatment and she even revealed that that there was a professor at the university of Alexandria who proposed a promising treatment project yet the government did not listen to him and do not even ask why.

Also Egyptian researchers have reached to fantastic ecological ways to use agricultural wastes from rice wastes , corn wastes and even dates waste to purify the Nile water from toxic materials in Egypt and do not ask me why the government does not adopt this study which was done in the national center of researches by the way, we will be solving two major ecological problems or even parts of these problems  if we adopt it : The Nile river pollution and the black cloud that is caused by the rice wastes.

We have a lot of Water but just like any other source in Egypt we do not know how to use it in the best way because there is no accountability , if there is a real accountability and transparency in this country , if we have a real parliament in this country , this would not be the result. I do not blame the ministry of environmental affairs because already the government or the regime to be correct does not put the health of the citizen or the environment among its priorities.

I do not think that we will be unattractive to investments if we impose real environment laws because as the native Americans used to say we do not inherit the land from ancestors , we borrow it from our children whom are getting sick because of us !!

You can sign a petition to support the UN’s effort to bring clean and safe water to millions , of course as Egyptian I wonder what I shall sign to make my government bring me clean and safe water !!??

This is a real national security not an environmental matter , Please react now before it is too late.

Notes
1. Israel from couple of months ago offered unofficially its generous help in return for Nile’s water but Mubarak rejected the offer officially and unofficially “The river Nile will never leave Egypt”
2.  I do not see that our growing population is a curse , it is bless if it is wisely used.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,National,Economy,Environment,Politics,Nile River,UN,Petitions,pollution,Blog Action Day 2010