‘Egypt’s water budget deficit and suggested mitigation policies for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam filling scenarios

Summary

The research paper published in English by the British Environmental Research Letters, titled “Egypt’s water budget deficit and suggested mitigation policies for the GERD filling scenarios” by Prof. Dr. Essam Heggy et al. states that “the Nile’s altered flow will present a challenging water deficit for Egypt—the quantification and mitigation of which are still largely unconstrained and under intense debate.

To address this deficiency, the paper estimates that the median total annual water budget deficit for Egypt during the filling period, considering seepage into the fractured rocks below and around the GERD reservoir, the intrinsic water deficit and assuming no possible mitigation efforts by the Egyptian authorities, will be -31 BCM/yr, which would surpass one third of Egypt’s current total water budget.

Given the importance of the research topic, and the devastating effects that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam may have on Egypt, as shown by the study, the Egypt Institute Journal has published the research in Arabic for the benefit of Arab researchers.