CAIRO: Per-capita water consumption in Egypt declined by 11.1 percent in 2013/2014, registering 103.4 cubic meters compared with 116.3 cubic meters in 2012/2013, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said Tuesday in annual bulletin.
The agency attributed the decrease of drinking water share to the” population growth and lack of producing pure water” to cope with such census increase.
“The average per capita share of consumed pure water reached 76.9 cubic meters in 2013/2014 compared to 88.9 cubic meters in 2012/2013, a decrease of 13.5 percent,” bulletin read.
The total amount of water consumed nationwide reached 11.7 billion cubic meters; pure water makes up 8.9 billion cubic meters (75.6 percent of total amount) while impure produced water hit 2.8 billion cubic meters (24.4 percent), the bulletin continued.
In May 2014, CAPMAS reported that Egypt is experiencing water poverty, as average water resources per capita are expected to plummet to 582 cubic meters by 2025.
Egypt primarily depends on Nile River water, of which its share reached annually 55.5 billion cubic meters, while average rain fall in other Basin countries reaches 1.6 trillion cubic meters annually.
Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hossam Moghzy called on Egyptians to ration their use of water as Egypt’s share of the Nile is “very limited.” His comments came during the national day The Flooding of the Nile Aug. 16.
Cairo’s concerns on its Nile water share have been heightened since May 2011, after Ethiopia began controversial Renaissance Grand Dam on the Blue River; Egypt has claimed that the dam construction could affect negatively its share.
Since then the relations between both countries strained; after almost two-years tripartite talks held between both countries and Sudan, the countries reached an initial agreement (Declaration of the Renaissance Dam Principles Charter) in March.
Per the charter, Egypt would participate with Ethiopia in the management of the dam with written guarantees to protect Egypt’s share of Nile waters.