CAIRO – 23 September 2018: Some farmers voiced their concerns over water shortage in irrigation canals in Delta and Upper Egypt as it can damage their crops, amid water scarcity the country suffers from.
In Upper Egypt’s Sohag, banana crops were destroyed as the main irrigation canals have been filled with water hyacinth for more than 12 years, complained Mansour Salman, an owner of a banana farm.
Standing on the irrigation canal, Salman told Egypt Today that the canal has been completely neglected. It should irrigate more than 2,000 acres in Dar el-Salam village, but the water is mostly consumed by water hyacinth, he said.
Banana plants are almost dead as they should be irrigated every 10 days, but water flows every 45 days and the cultivation began to weaken significantly, said Abdullah al-Salmy, another farmer.
Small farmers complained about water shortage in their new agricultural startups. In Wadi al-Noqra village, in Aswan’s Nasr al-Nuba city, a group of youth demanded getting the water needed for cultivating their lands, reported Al-Gedaan talk show on Al-Kahera wal Nas TV channel. They get water only every two weeks.
In a statement released on Friday, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation replied that the small farmers illegally plant water intensive crops of sugarcane.
“The village should plant crops, which do not need large amounts of water, as determined by the ministry,” the statement added.
In Kafr El-Sheikh governorate, other farmers in Sidi Salem city voiced their worries over losing clover and sugar beet crops as water does not reach their lands, Masrawy online reported on Thursday.
The complaining farmers remarked that water in the irrigating canal of Sakhawi, which irrigates 14,000 acres, decreased.