Mismanagement in the Irrigation Canals of Egypt

by Neil Pollick
Almasry Aliom Environment section May 2011

The canals of Abu Sir are part of the vast network of Egypt’s irrigation canals designed to expand the
area of arable land away from the Nile. It’s a legacy dating back to the time of the pharaohs. The
stone blocks used in the step pyramids of Abu Sir and Saqqara were floated in on ancient waterways
that are still used today. But one thing is for sure, the pollution in the canals was never part of the
ancients’ plan. It has taken 40 years of bad planning and poor services in the modern era to reduce
them to their present sorry state.

Since the newer extensions were constructed in the 1970s, the canals have become dumping
grounds for domestic sewage and household refuse and are now a major health hazard. Though
ignorant of the specific diseases that the water can cause, most villagers know to stay well away
from the canals. Some civic-minded individuals actually climb into the water to clear out the rubbish
by hand, while others swim and fish in the larger canals, which they mistakenly assume to be safe
because the water looks clear.

Those who do come into direct contact with the water run the risk of numerous gastro-intestinal
problems caused by parasites and viral and bacterial pathogens. According to a senior doctor in the
village’s only hospital, the Abu Sir Al Gomeya, funded by an Islamic charitable organization, Amoebic
Dysentery is the most common. This is a disease common to areas of contaminated drinking water.

But in the end there is no way to stay healthy in this environment so long as the canals remain
uncovered. Even if you steer clear of the water you can’t escape the air borne pathogens that arise
there. These “bio-aerosols” are probably responsible for the high incidence of throat infections,
tonsillitis and rashes that local doctors’ report, especially among children. In the back streets, where
the houses sit only metres from the narrow and stagnant irrigation sub-canals, the Culex Pipiens
mosquito finds a perfect breeding ground among the rank soup of decaying vegetable matter,
animal excreta, rotting refuse and discharge from latrines and defective septic tanks. Among other
diseases, this mosquito is an agent of Bancroftian Filariasis, a disease on the rise in Egypt that infects
the lymphatic system with a parasitic worm and causes the limbs to swell up.

These problems would not have existed in the first place if the people had not built their homes on
land earmarked for cultivation, i.e. land within reach of irrigation water. The homes were not meant
to be close to the canals. But the settlements sprang up just the same and the government tolerated
them after the fines were paid. At first these unauthorised homes were without running water and
electricity, and even though these utilities were introduced later, no sewage system was ever
installed and no permanent solution was ever found for refuse removal or reliable drinking water.

Domestic refuse ends up in the canals because there is simply no-one taking it away. Those who feel
uneasy with just dumping it in public have no choice but to burn it. Hazem Abo Zeid, co-founder of a
local Youth Association working in the Abu Sir area to improve levels of education and living
standards, the “Egyptian Cultural Institution for Continuing Development”, says that there used to
be a domestic refuge collection service 2 years ago but it was run by a private company and now
they only collect from businesses and wealthier homes. They offload the rubbish at the
Shoubarmont dump, an open air government facility in the desert just a kilometre from the Abu Sir
pyramids. But it costs to use the dump and villagers can’t afford it. Hazem says that his organisation
has plans to introduce a sustainable refuse collection service for everyone but it needs to be
integrated into a larger initiative, one which will require outside agencies to start tackling the
problem.

Septic tanks have to be built into the foundations of the houses. Those without tanks have to
discharge their waste straight into the canals. The sewage is collected from the septic tanks every 2
months, by a horse drawn tanker which dumps the sewage directly into the Mariottia canal, the
main waterway through Shoubarmont, and the source of the secondary canal feeding Abu Sir.

Even though the canal water is not used in homes, it has to be utilised untreated by farmers. Since
many displaced fields are not supplied by any irrigation ditch, private individuals have installed their
own pumps beside the large canals to feed water to their fields through plastic pipes. Any toxins
and contaminants released downstream into the canals are inevitably taken up in the food chain.

The runoff water from the fields that seeps back into the irrigation system is salty because of the
minerals leached from the soil. Villagers consistently reported that the mains supply water in their
houses was salty which means that it wasn’t being supplied from a regular treatment plant (treated
water tastes of chlorine). It may be coming directly from canals, without treatment or it could be
coming from groundwater through wells. Some villagers reported that the supply was spasmodic;
others reported that it was continuous, while houses on the edge of the desert reported having no
supply at all. All agreed that the mains water was undrinkable and very few people had any use for it
at all.

Some of the richer establishments such as country clubs and private stables manage their own water
treatment of ground water but villagers are obliged to buy clean water from a treatment plant run
by the non-profit organisation “Social Fund for Development “created, with a broad mandate to
tackle poverty, by Presidential decree in 1991. The plant purifies well water in a 9 stage process.
Villagers pay 50 piasters for a 20 Litre refill. The service is taken further afield by middlemen using
horse drawn carts but their limited service does not come close to supplying all the homes in the
area and of course it raises the cost.

Naturally the lack of normal utilities incurs extra charges for local people. Sewage removal from
septic tanks is done once every 2 months at a cost of 150LE and water costs anything from 2LE to
5LE per day for a family with children.

Although we cannot estimate exactly how widespread these environmental problems are in the
country as a whole, the problems facing Abu Sir are certainly not unique. Wherever there are
settlements on land that was designated for agriculture, and when there is no adequate sewage
system, water supply and refuse collection, similar problems must surely have developed.