The Arab Republic of Egypt is located in the Northeastern part of Africa and has more than 2,900 km of coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Suez, and the Gulf of Aqaba. It has a mild winter season with rain falling along coastal areas, and a hot and dry summer season (May to September); overall, the country is highly arid and receives very little annual precipitation. Egypt's inhabited land area, concentrated along the Nile River, comprises only 7.8% of the total area of the country. Annual population growth is high at 2.5%, putting pressure on a slowly growing water supply. 97% of the water resources originate from outside Egypt’s borders, making the supply highly vulnerable and sensitive to any uncoordinated upstream developments. Egypt faces major challenges regarding water resource management, with the growing needs of an increasingly urbanized population and the dependence on external water supply from the Nile River implying a deepening gap between water demand and supply. To ensure food security, large areas of desert have been reclaimed and added more stress on country water resources.

Water and agriculture entities are looking for all forms of integration and cooperation with international organizations to highlight and contribute to resolve the agricultural-water challenges in Egypt. WaPOR data can help the monitor land and crop productivity so that more crops can be grown with the available water resources that are already stretched thin. From October 2019 until April 2020, Egypt was one of WaPOR phase 1 partner countries. Following the recommendations of the first phase, the second phase of the project will be more demand driven so as to adequately respond to stakeholders’ needs and priorities.

 

Project milestones:

October 2023: WaPOR phase 2 inception workshop