IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v8y2016i4p383-d68491.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Issues and Challenges in Spatial and Temporal Water Allocation in the Nile Delta

Author

Listed:
  • Wouter Wolters

    (Alterra, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Robert Smit

    (Central Directorate for Water Resources, National Water Resources Unit, c/o Ministry of Water resources and Irrigation, Corniche El Nil, Imbaba, 12666 Giza, Egypt
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Mohamed Nour El-Din

    (Irrigation & Hydraulics Department of the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, 1 El Sarayat Street, Abbasseya, 11566 Cairo, Egypt
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Eman Sayed Ahmed

    (Planning Sector, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Imbaba, 12666 Giza, Egypt
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jochen Froebrich

    (Alterra, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Henk Ritzema

    (Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

“Egypt is a gift of the Nile,” wrote Herodotus, and indeed, without the Nile there would be no Egypt as the world knows it. Egypt is mainly dependent on the flow in the Nile River (with an agreed share of 55.5 BCM) and it receives about 1.3 BCM rainfall annually (mainly along the north coast). The overall water use efficiency is already high, due to e.g., water scarcity and reuse of drainage water. Egypt’s water resources are managed by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), with agriculture as by far the largest user of irrigation water, with a share of about 85%. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the major issues and challenges in the spatial and temporal allocation of water, in relation to a free cropping pattern and the characteristics of the irrigation system. We conclude that the current world-wide call for “crop-demand-based precision irrigation supply” will not be easily attainable in Egypt. Instead, “water security” in the form of “guaranteed or agreed” water supply may be a preferred water allocation aim for various reasons, including lack of large storage possibilities, impossibility of fine-tuning supplies in the system, and the needed capacity to deal with (future) droughts. Although the paper concentrates on technical issues, it is increasingly realized that the challenges are not only of a technical nature and that there is a need for integration of policies as well as a need to establish effective science–business–policy interfaces at the national level.

Suggested Citation

  • Wouter Wolters & Robert Smit & Mohamed Nour El-Din & Eman Sayed Ahmed & Jochen Froebrich & Henk Ritzema, 2016. "Issues and Challenges in Spatial and Temporal Water Allocation in the Nile Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:383-:d:68491
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/4/383/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/4/383/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2015. "World Development Indicators 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21634, December.
    2. Safwat Abdel-Dayem, 2011. "Water Quality Management in Egypt," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 181-202, March.
    3. Inas El-Gafy, 2014. "System Dynamic Model for Crop Production, Water Footprint, and Virtual Water Nexus," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(13), pages 4467-4490, October.
    4. World Bank, 2007. "Making the Most of Scarcity : Accountability for Better Water Management Results in the Middle East and North Africa," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6845, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ritzema, Henk & Abdel-Dayem, Safwat & El-Atfy, Hussein & Nasralla, Magdy Rashad & Shaheen, Hanny Saad, 2023. "Challenges in modernizing the subsurface drainage systems in Egypt," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    2. Hassan A. Awaad & Elsayed Mansour & Mohammad Akrami & Hassan E.S. Fath & Akbar A. Javadi & Abdelazim Negm, 2020. "Availability and Feasibility of Water Desalination as a Non-Conventional Resource for Agricultural Irrigation in the MENA Region: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jan Fagerberg & Bengt-Åke Lundvall & Martin Srholec, 2018. "Global Value Chains, National Innovation Systems and Economic Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 533-556, July.
    2. Guangyao Deng & Liujuan Wang & Yanan Song, 2015. "Effect of Variation of Water-Use Efficiency on Structure of Virtual Water Trade - Analysis Based on Input–Output Model," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(8), pages 2947-2965, June.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Governance, capital flight and industrialisation in Africa," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Klotz, Richard & Gurung, Ram & Ogle, Stephen & Paustian, Keith & Sheehan, John & Bento, Antonio M., 2015. "Evaluating Policy Options to Reduce N2O Emissions from US Agriculture," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205808, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Richard Chisik & Nazanin Behzadan & Harun Onder & Apurva Sanghi, 2016. "Aid, Remittances, the Dutch Disease, Refugees, and Kenya," Working Papers 062, Ryerson University, Department of Economics.
    6. Al Zayed, Islam Sabry & Elagib, Nadir Ahmed & Ribbe, Lars & Heinrich, Jürgen, 2016. "Satellite-based evapotranspiration over Gezira Irrigation Scheme, Sudan: A comparative study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 66-76.
    7. Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2023. "Child marriage as informal insurance: Empirical evidence and policy simulations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    8. Iseghohi Judith Omon, 2021. "Migrant Remittances and Health Outcomes in the West Africa Monetary Zones (WAMZ)," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 24(81), pages 15-32, September.
    9. SangHyun Cheon & Dong-Wook Song & Sungjin Park, 2018. "Does more competition result in better port performance?," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(3), pages 433-455, September.
    10. Rentschler, Jun, 2016. "Incidence and impact: The regional variation of poverty effects due to fossil fuel subsidy reform," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 491-503.
    11. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta, 2016. "Reconciliation of the Washington Consensus with the Beijing Model in Africa," MPRA Paper 73685, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Uchenna R. Efobi & Ibukun Beecroft, 2021. "Aid in Modulating the Impact of Terrorism on FDI: No Positive Thresholds, No Policy," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 432-456, October.
    13. Sheng, Yu & Xu, Xinpeng, 2019. "The productivity impact of climate change: Evidence from Australia's Millennium drought," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 182-191.
    14. Garfield O. Blake, 2015. "Using Increases in Criminal Deportees from the US to Estimate the Effect of Crime on Economic Growth and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean," Laws, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-18, November.
    15. Chakraborty, Adrij, 2017. "Colonial Origins and Comparative Development: Institutions Matter," MPRA Paper 86320, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Feb 2018.
    16. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2018. "Increasing Foreign Aid for Inclusive Human Development in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 443-466, July.
    17. Garikai Makuyana & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Public and private investment and economic growth in Malawi: an ARDL-bounds testing approach," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 673-689, January.
    18. Eric Fosu Oteng-Abayie & Prosper Awuni Ayinbilla & Maame Esi Eshun, 2018. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Crude Oil Demand in Ghana," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(4), pages 873-888, August.
    19. Chirwa, Themba G. & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2016. "What Drives Long-Run Economic Growth? Empirical Evidence from South Africa," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 69(4), pages 429-456.
    20. Simplice Asongu & Ndemaze Asongu, 2018. "The comparative exploration of mobile money services in inclusive development," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 45(1), pages 124-139, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:383-:d:68491. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.