With global warming increasing year by year, how will this affect the Nile Delta, asks Ahmed Mahmoud
"The whole world has been busy with the issue of climate change and its implications, including the melting of large parts of the ice caps of the Earth's poles," Sayed Sharafeddin, professor of marine science at the University of Alexandria told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This leads to rising sea levels and what these imply for drowning currently dry areas, including cities that are centres of civilisation. All this is a huge disaster by any standards." Sharafeddin added that global changes do not occur suddenly or over the short term, but that nature works slowly and change can take place over generations. Thus, the endangered character of the Nile Delta in Egypt has long been recognised, with some experts arguing that urban settlements in the Delta may one day vanish under the sea.
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Ahram Weekly
17 - 23 December 2009 - Issue No. 977
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/977/en2.htm
Climate change: Precarious Rosetta
Around Rosetta, the dramatic effects of climate change can already be seen. Along the city, famous for the stone that bears its name, the west branch of the Nile gently flows into the Mediterranean. But behind this peaceful facade lies a troublesome reality.
For centuries, the waters of the Nile have been used for agriculture. But six years ago, farmers began taking water from canals, which bring water in from much farther afield, to irrigate their lands. The reason for the change was the rising salinity of river water in the area. Since then, salinity levels have steadily risen, making the river water almost as salty as sea water.
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http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/climate-change-precarious-rosetta
Rising water levels threaten millions in the Delta
By Michael Ide
For millennia, Egyptians have fought to prevent occupation of the Delta. Today, the region remains vulnerable to invasion, but the threat is not the Romans or French. It’s the sea itself. A growing body of evidence suggests that sea levels, fed by the fallout of climate change, could rise by up to 1m in the next century. That may not seem like much — it’s about the same height as a North Coast wave — but the rise could drown over a million feddans of prime farmland, displace millions of people and seriously threaten Egypt’s economy.
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Business Today Egypt - Decemebr 2009
http://www.businesstodayegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8730
Climate change blues
Each global warming scenario seems more nightmarish than the last. But the one thing Egypt cannot afford to do, writes Abdel-Moneim Said, is to bury its head in the sand
Egypt is among the 20 countries ranked most vulnerable to global warming. Among the scenarios predicted by climatologists is that global warming will hasten the evaporation of the Nile, leading to severe water shortages. According to a report by the Council of Ministers Information Centre, the anticipated rise in Egypt's average temperature by an average of 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2050 and 2.4 degrees by 2100 will severely reduce the productivity of agricultural land. More alarming still is the prediction that 30 per cent of the Nile Delta will be vulnerable to flooding. The densely populated Delta is home to two-thirds of Egypt's inhabitants. Also facing submersion are the industrial zones and commercial projects which have been constructed along 240km of Egypt's Mediterranean coat, with a hinterland 160km deep facing flooding from the sea.
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http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/977/op22.htm