With over-population threatening Egypt’s thinly stretched economic resources, the country’s successive governments have been taking measures to meet the needs of the ever-increasing numbers of Egyptians. Predictably, many of these measures may have had negative—or at best controversial effects on the environment. Watani talked to international environmental expert Mohamed Abdel-Fattah al-Qassass on the topic.
How can the increasing expansion in construction at the expense of agricultural land be controlled?
Were we aware of the real value of the desert surrounding us, which is 95 per cent of Egypt, we could have built all these new development centres there and halted the loss of our agricultural land. What was done at 6th October City, Burg al-Arab and the 10 Ramadan City represents a slight contribution to lessening the hazards of construction, contrary to what happened as a result of the expansion of Greater Cairo into Mohandiseen and Giza, where expansive areas of the best cultivable land were lost. The government tried in vain to compensate for these deeds with high cost land reclamation projects.
Shifting sand in the Western Desert has contributed to the shrinkage of agricultural areas. How would you explain this?
The Western Desert is a source of real environmental harm because of sand movement. Northwest winds blow from desert areas towards the southeast, where there are agricultural areas. In the past, these desert sands were covered by the Nile flood waters and were thus mixed with the alluvium carried by the flood, creating a very fertile soil. But following the construction of the High Dam, the alluvium stopped accumulating and the sand threat increased, particularly on the west bank in Upper Egypt. This also applied to southern areas where Lake Nasser has formed.
The problem is a threat not only to agricultural areas but also to biological diversity. Are there any details in this respect?
Biological diversity comprises a wealth of wild fauna and flora which, as a result of human activity, is regrettably about to vanish. Experts estimate the number of plant and animal species worldwide at 10 million, while those we have been able to classify are only 1.4 million. The solution is to continue with research on the transfer of hereditary elements from one plant genealogy to another, which will open the horizon to transferring the hereditary unit of a plant which survives on the salty soils of the Red Sea to a plant which we could cultivate. So, the plant would be irrigated with salty water, and at the same time would give us the crop we need.
What about the possibility of establishing a gene bank to protect kinds of plants grown outside their natural environment?
The first stage of a gene bank would be to protect species that have existed in Egypt for a long time, such as the papyrus plant which was used to write the history of ancient Egypt. The plant would have been lost except for the dedication of Dr Hassan Ragab and his re-cultivation of this valuable crop on the banks of the Nile. Scientific institutions build banks of specimens of historic agricultural crops and domestic animals. They provide the required financing for improved varieties of old crops. Some countries establish specialised stations for breeding rare varieties and providing their protected areas with the kinds that once flourished there, but had vanished, this called retaining of species in their original environment is similar to the Egyptian project at Wadi Rayyan in Fayoum.
Experts have agreed that the erection of the High Dam resulted in positive as well as the negative results. What do you think are the problems and solutions?
The High Dam created a huge lake, a drinking water reservoir which extends from southern Egypt to northern Sudan, and the Egyptian share of Nile water has increased from 347.5 to 555 cubic metres per annum. This has helped bring 750,000 acres in Upper Egypt under permanent irrigation, in addition to the reclamation of a million acres of the desert land in the Nile Delta and Valley. The lake is a rich fish resource, and is also a good tourist venue especially for cruise boats. Indeed the area between Aswan and Abu Simbel is open for tourism, and a naval transport route runs between Egypt and the Sudan. But then pollution has increased from cruise ship waste and drainage, which has resulted in the dense growth of wild blue hyacinth that feeds on it and which has killed the natural vegetation on the banks of the lake; the growth of bacteria, and the invasion of floating water plants. All these elements denote that the environmental state of the lake has not yet stabilised, and that the pollution may have exceeded the lake’s capability to overcome.
BOX
Abdel-Fattah al-Qassas
· Born in 1921 in Burg al-Burullus
· Graduated from the Faculty of Science in 1944
· Earned a doctoral degree from Cambridge University in 1950
· Was president of the International Union of Conservation of Nature in the period from 1978 to 1984
· Won the medal of the International Union of Conservation of Nature in 1991 and the Zayed Prize for the Environment in 2001
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