Water in Egypt and around the world

Hello from Cairo!

I arrived in Cairo on the 31st of October to attend an international course on Water and Sustainability jointly run by ETH sustainability from Zurich and WESC (Wadi Environmental Science Centre) from Cairo. The course was conducted in two eco-lodges in the Sinai - one in the desert (El-Karm) and one by the Red Sea (Basata). Both locations were carefully chosen to drive home the message that water scarcity is a major global issue which is easily visible in the mountainous desert of the sinai and along the shores of the salty Red Sea.

There were 17 students from around the world - Sudan, Kenya, Colombia, Switzerland, Equador, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Germany, USA, Thailand, Turkey, India, and Canada:). On the first day, each student gave a presentation about water issues in their home country, giving us a global perspective of water issues. On the following days we learned from local experts and professors working in Europe about local and global water issues. Water scarcity, water supply, sanitation, and virtual water trading were the main topics of discussion.

Virtual water trading is directly related to agricultural import and export, where the amount of water that is used to grow a crop is essentially (virtually) exported out of the country of origin to feed the people of another country. For example, if a Canadian eats rice that is grown in China, and it requires x amount of water to grow the rice then the Canadian is taking water from their water cycle to feed themselves. Raising cattle is an extremely water-intensive endevour, so if a person from Ontario eats beef from water-scarce Alberta, it directly impacts the water source in that area.

The lectures on water supply and sanitiation mainly focussed on developing countries that have little access to clean water and proper waste treatment. Though the professor teaching the session is an engineer, he spoke adamently about the social implications of developing water sources in the developing water. Do the local people use water collection as a social ritual to keep communities together? He also spoke of communties that all the women walk together to the river to shit in the water and have a nice social time while they were there... The technical solutions that he emphasised were dry toilets that require no water - the flush toilet and sewer systems were designed in western countries that have proportionally more water than developing countries, specifically Africa. So why should Africans use many litres of water to flush sit-down toilets? Comfort? Colonialism? Keeping up with the Joneses? I don't know - maybe you do?

We also went on a couple of field trips - one to the closest village, where we learned from an Egyptian (medical) doctor, Dr. Murad, that the local groundwater has elevated levels of Flouride in the water, which leads to decaying teeth (yes, a little flouride is good, like in your toothpaste but a lot is bad) and joint pain in the bedouin people. The water used for drinking was also contaminated with bacteria. Dr. Murad started an NGO that implemented two simple water remediation methods with a strong emphasis on educating the community. They use alum and Na2CO3 to eliminate the flouride and SODIS to eliminate microbial contamination. The last water-related health issue in the local community is that the bedouins do not drink enough water and often get kidney stones. The population is so accustomed to having very little water that they have trained themselves to drink very little water. There is even a local custom to cut the uvula (that thing that hangs in the back of the throat) as it is believed that they will be less thirsty as a result. The other field trip was a 5 hour hike to St. Katherine monastary at the base of Mount Sinai. It was lovely...

The desert scenery at El Karm is incredible. It was peaceful, relaxing, and beautiful. The photos at the top of this post were taken by Hani Eskander, a professional photographer who came along for the course.