Nile River – Cairo (AFP)
Dubai – Al Arabiya.net
Posted on: August 18, 2023: 01:32 PM GST Last updated: August 18, 2023: 02:14 PM GST
At the bottom of an ancient tomb dating back to the thirteenth century in Fatimid Cairo, herbs grow in a muddy pool to which water reaches from perforated pipes, from which quantities of drinking water leak in a country suffering from drought, indicating the deterioration of the water networks in the country, according to what some engineers confirmed. .
The architect, Mai Al-Ibrashi, explained that the plants that grow at the ancient tomb of Ashraf Khalil are not fed by “groundwater from the ground, but water directly below the surface of the earth.”
mixed with sewage
The engineer specializing in heritage preservation, who, with her team, conducted analyzes of stagnant water under the ruins in several places between the Caliph and Imam al-Shafi’i areas in Cairo, added that each time the results of the analysis were identical.. “It is drinking water mixed with sewage water.”
And she added, “This means that there is a problem of leakage in the water networks,” which feed more than 20 million people who live in Cairo, the second largest capital in Africa.
The water reaches a depth of one meter under the mosques and shrines in Fatimid Cairo, where the level of the streets is higher than the level on which these ancient buildings were built.
Water in Egypt (AFP)
Unpaid water
For his part, Hassan Tawfiq, an expert in water management, explained that “the production of the General Water Company does not match the volume of consumption recorded with it,” which means that there is a missing percentage.
He said that leakage in Egypt “occurs because the pipeline networks are dilapidated and full of holes, and there is water theft” through random sub-pipes that are connected to the public network.
He also considered that this waste is unacceptable in a country that is going through the worst economic crisis in its history.
From Egypt (AFP)
The researcher at the Dutch University of Wagentingen added that Egypt does not have surplus funds to “afford the cost of producing water that no one uses,” and that every drop of water has a value in a country where the per capita share of water is 550 cubic meters annually, which is twice less than the minimum water safety limit. , according to what was reported by AFP.
Note that what experts call “unpaid water” leads to the loss of tens of billions of cubic meters of water worldwide.
On the other hand, Al-Ibrashi believed that the cost of repairing the pipes could be reduced if the leakage locations were accurately identified. However, this requires that municipalities review their traditional way of working.
“Currently, in archaeological areas, municipalities are setting up systems to divert water into the sewage network before it reaches the historical buildings so that they are not affected by the increase in soil moisture and salinity,” she added.
rickety networks
According to official figures, 26.5% of the drinking water produced in Egypt did not reach the consumer during the fiscal year 2021/2022 in a country that suffers from water shortages and is threatened with “not having water in the year 2025,” according to the United Nations.
While experts believe that the percentage of drinking water lost is greater than that.
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2023-08-18 09:32:00
#height #drought #drinking #water #leaks #Egypt
