The causes of the accelerated salinization of soils since the construction of
the Aswan High Dam have in the meantime not only raised a critical aware-
ness among many fellaheen, but have also been described in scientific (among
others Barth and Shata 1987: 2) as well as in official Egyptian (CAPMAS 1987:
79 and 87) publications. They can be summarized as follows:
1. Presently Egypt suffers from excessive irrigation since unlimited amounts
of water seem to be available. There exist neither attempts to control over-
irrigation nor endeavours to sensitize farmers to its fatal consequences.
2. The cultivation of crops with a high water demand, like sugar cane and rice
(see Table 8.5), increased owing partly to the greater water availability in
the main season of plant growth and partly to the state’s agrarian pricing
policy which favoured these crops.
3. All-year irrigation was also introduced in the areas of former seasonal basin
irrigation in Upper Egypt without constructing the necessary drainage net
which permanent irrigation requires.
4. From the new land reclamation projects in the deserts on the higher Nile
terraces saline drainage water seeps down and leads to additional saliniza-
tion of the groundwater and of the best soils in the alluvial plain.
5. The salt content of Nile water doubled as a consequence of the high rate
of evaporation in the Sadd el-Ali storage lake (see Table 6.3) and due to
the annual passing of several billion cubic metres of highly saline drainage
water into the river from the cultivated land.
6. Owing to excessive irrigation about 10–15 billion m3
of drainage water seep
into the soils annually and mix with the groundwater, especially in the Nile
delta, which today has a salt content ten times as high as that of Nile water
(CAPMAS 1987: 87; see Figure 5.2). Through the rise of the groundwater
table, coupled with the elimination of the former fluctuation of the Nile
water level, large areas in the Nile valley and the Nile delta are suffering
from waterlogging
the Aswan High Dam have in the meantime not only raised a critical aware-
ness among many fellaheen, but have also been described in scientific (among
others Barth and Shata 1987: 2) as well as in official Egyptian (CAPMAS 1987:
79 and 87) publications. They can be summarized as follows:
1. Presently Egypt suffers from excessive irrigation since unlimited amounts
of water seem to be available. There exist neither attempts to control over-
irrigation nor endeavours to sensitize farmers to its fatal consequences.
2. The cultivation of crops with a high water demand, like sugar cane and rice
(see Table 8.5), increased owing partly to the greater water availability in
the main season of plant growth and partly to the state’s agrarian pricing
policy which favoured these crops.
3. All-year irrigation was also introduced in the areas of former seasonal basin
irrigation in Upper Egypt without constructing the necessary drainage net
which permanent irrigation requires.
4. From the new land reclamation projects in the deserts on the higher Nile
terraces saline drainage water seeps down and leads to additional saliniza-
tion of the groundwater and of the best soils in the alluvial plain.
5. The salt content of Nile water doubled as a consequence of the high rate
of evaporation in the Sadd el-Ali storage lake (see Table 6.3) and due to
the annual passing of several billion cubic metres of highly saline drainage
water into the river from the cultivated land.
6. Owing to excessive irrigation about 10–15 billion m3
of drainage water seep
into the soils annually and mix with the groundwater, especially in the Nile
delta, which today has a salt content ten times as high as that of Nile water
(CAPMAS 1987: 87; see Figure 5.2). Through the rise of the groundwater
table, coupled with the elimination of the former fluctuation of the Nile
water level, large areas in the Nile valley and the Nile delta are suffering
from waterlogging
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