Unveiling the Hard Truth Behind Egypt’s Nile
By Abdallah AbdelDayem
The Nile is an integral piece in Egypt. It is the main source of water, in terms of domestic consumption, and irrigation. The agricultural sector forms over a quarter of total employment, and contributes to over 10% of the yearly gross domestic product, according to the World Bank, making the Nile a massive shareholder in Egypt’s economy.
However, the Nile is now under threat from an exponential increase in pollution. Over 4.5 million tons of untreated “industrial contaminants” and 14 million tons of solid waste are dumped into the Nile every year by various companies, according to The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR).
This has consequently factored into the tremendous deterioration of the Nile’s quality, threatening both, the Egyptian population, and the marine life in the Nile.
In 2008, it was estimated by the Egyptian Center for Economic Social Rights, that almost 5% of all deaths, and 7% of all disabilities in Egypt, were a result of consuming unsafe water, and inadequate sanitation. While over a tenth of the population suffered from either cancer or the hepatitis C virus, which is also highly attributed to consumption of contaminated water.
Nevertheless, the problem lies deeper than just the diseases that are more commonly known.The lack of monitoring of the Nile creates a sporadic, unstable environment, which is ideal for the emergence of new and dangerous unknown diseases, according to microbiologist Rania Siam.
“There are other diseases that could be of concern, and these are what we call emerging infectious diseases. Emerging infectious diseases are diseases that all of a sudden appear and we don’t have a drug to treat it, and these are much more problematic than, for example, bilharziasis; a disease we already have a cure for,” Siam said.
This also affects marine life massively, and consequently affects the consuming populous.
“There could be infections from a certain type of bacteria called Vibrio Parahaemolyticus; which is a bacterium that causes very nasty food poisoning gastroenteritis, and this is very common when you have eaten fish that has been contaminated with this [bacterium]. So in this case it’s not actually the water, it’s the fish that live in the water, which is the result of the contaminated environment,” Siam said.
Health risks are evident from the resulting substandard quality of the water of the Nile. Every Egyptian citizen is under persistent threat from a fundamental right to drink water. Evidently, action must be taken.
“The government has three stages to prevent further damage to the Nile,” said a representative in the ministry of water resources and irrigation, Nader El Masry.
“The first stage is prevention. We always try to initially prevent the damage from happening, and this is done by having strict laws and monitoring factories. The second stage is treatment of the water to make sure it reaches the consumer as clean as possible. The third stage is controlling the situation, like placing the water filtration facility before the deposits of pollutants,” El Masry added.
Several samples are taken continuously from main deltas in the Nile, to keep tabs on the level of contaminants in the water, and it has shown that the levels of contaminants are dropping, according to El Masry.
However, research would disagree.
Samples of water taken from the Nile in Giza, Manyal, Imbaba and Kanater, have proved to have increasingly dangerous levels of toxic metal, that can cause adverse health effects, according to a study published in the Journal of Toxicology in 2015.
There isn’t enough information provided from the government itself, however, about the levels of metal and other contaminants in the water of the Nile.
“Most countries would have an analysis of their tap water, which consumers can view. So they can compare [the level of] different metals in the water, chlorine, and salt. Therefore, you can even compare this with the mineral water that you’re drinking,” Siam said.
The unknown amount of minerals and contaminants in the water of the Nile makes consuming tap water a risky option. But knowing these details might seem irrelevant at this stage.
According to the Guardian, The United Nations warned Egypt in 2015 that it might face an “absolute water crisis” in 2025. With an exponentially increasing population, Egypt is consuming water faster than it is replenishing it.
“It turns not only from a hazard of water conservation, to a problem with having water but that threatens your health or life,” said Mahmoud El Rayes, who’s currently working on a water conservation campaign.
“Right now, a lot of the poorer areas have access to extremely unhealthy water. The Nile has been polluted, [and] we need stronger laws. It starts with the domestic use, but we have to move on to industrial use and agricultural use, because a lot of that waste is not regulated, and pollutes the Nile, which affects us all,” added El Rayes.
Even the 5th century historian Herodotus called Egypt “the gift of the Nile.” The Nile has always been the glimmer of life in Egypt, in what is a land ravished by deserts. However, it seems as if even the Egyptians have forgotten that fact, as the Nile is at its worst. If no action is taken soon, it could prove to be detrimental to Egypt and its citizens.