Egypt may face fresh water shortage by 2025
The ongoing reduction in Egypt’s Nile fresh water may subject the country to fresh water and energy shortages by 2025, according to a report published in the Geological Society of America’s (GSA) March issue.
It explained that any further decrease in Nile fresh water would be ‘grave’ because at best, the river barely supplies 97 percent of Egypt’s water needs, and now provides only 660 cubic meters per capita, which is one of the world’s lowest water shares.
“With a population expected to double in the next 50 years, Egypt is projected to reach a state of serious country-wide fresh water and energy shortage by 2025.”
Since 2005, Egypt has been classified as a country that suffers water scarcity because water resources provide less than 1,000 cubic meters of fresh water annually per capita, while the population is expected to reach 95 million in 2025, which means the annual indivdual share will drop to 600 cubic meters per capita.
While in August 2015, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that the fresh water per capita consumption declined dramatically, as the average per capita consumption of fresh water in 2013-2014 was 103.4 cubic meters, compared to 116.3 cubic meters in 2012-2013, a decline of 11.1 percent due to the population increase.
Read the full article Hend El-Behary via Egypt Independent.
[Photo by Jorge Láscar | Flickr]
