Abyan Basin Water Management Committee Delegation visits Egypt

During December 2008 a high ranking delegation of the Abyan Basin Water Management Committee was invited to visit the gtz-Agriculture Water Management Project Egypt.

The Delegation had the chance to see the process of Agricultural irrigation training in the Nile delta and to learn about the problems and circumstances the farmers in the Nile delta are living and working.
Since the committee of Abyan delta faces also difficulties with the distribution of surface water very fruitful discussions were occurring.
Maintenance of the distribution network is the main challenge in the Egypt Nile delta as well as in the Abyan delta.

Another important issue was the cross border contamination of the river Nile. The upstream area of the Nile is not controlled in terms of contamination coming from upstream areas. This causes bad water qualities in the downstream area where the main agricultural activities occur. The fact that growing cattle crops and vegetables in the Nile delta while using contaminated water is bringing another difficult fact to the recent food crisis.

In Abyan we face similar problems, because of possible uncontrolled usage and contamination of the water out of Wadi Bana in upstream areas, the Abyan delta may face problems in the future with water contaminations and limited possibilities to use the water for irrigation. This will put the water supplier in a very difficult position since they have to take care on the quality of the supplied water. To avoid this in the future there is an urgent need to create a roundtable with all Governors of the catchment of Wadi Bana to create a common understanding on the need of information and care.
The delegation returned to Yemen on December 22nd.

February 2009

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