In the desert of northwest Egypt, Samira Eid grows eggplant, onions and tomatoes. Because the seawater has found its way into the groundwater here, the land was previously uncultivable.
– The tomatoes are still green. But when they ripen, they are the best tomatoes you can get, she says, pointing to the field where green plants are sticking out of the sandy soil.
Between the plants run water hoses connected to a desalination plant.
Mohamed el-Shorbagy shows how water is pumped up from the ground and led through several filters using solar power.
Severe water shortage
The UN states that Egypt is facing a serious water crisis in the coming years. Almost the entire population of the country lives along a narrow strip of arable land along the Nile.
As average temperatures rise, Egypt becomes increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels, which risk inundating the important agricultural land of the Nile Delta.
Therefore, Egypt now plans to quadruple the desalination of sea and groundwater in the coming years.
Focus on COP27
The question of how water-poor countries should adapt to climate change is in focus at the COP27 climate meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of the world’s population and is predicted to increase with rising average temperatures.
For Egypt, which is a major importer of food, the issue became even more acute this spring with rising food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine. The country wants to become more self-sufficient, but agriculture requires water.
Old dream
The dream of farming in the desert is not new. In 1997, Egypt’s former dictator Hosny Mubarak invested 40 billion Egyptian pounds in a giant farming project in the Western Desert that never came to fruition. Now the plans have gained new momentum due to the world situation.
But breaking new ground is not uncontroversial. Experts have questioned how long Egypt’s groundwater reserves will last for farming in the desert. New desalination plants are currently also being built on the country’s Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.
– Climate change means that agriculture in the Nile Delta risks being flooded. We have to plow new fields to fill our needs, says Samira Eid.