Dumping garbage in the canals has long been commonplace due to the lack of waste management facilities in the areas. Usually, the canal water would at least push the garbage along a bit, but the severe cuts have allowed garbage to accumulate in the canals.
Between water cuts, mounting garbage, and blocked irrigation the situation is quickly becoming a very serious problem in Abu Sir and Saqqara, and these areas are not alone.
“The ever-increasing challenges of access to water for farmers are not unique to Abu Sir and Saqqara. It’s an epidemic that is affecting all of Egypt’s countryside, and they require an immediate sustainable solution,” says Ahmed El Droubi, the sustainable agriculture campaigner for the Greenpeace Arab World project.
Egypt has long relied on a vast network of canals designed to bring water from the Nile and expand arable land east and west into the desert.
Water shortages and dumping is not a new concern for Egypt’s canals. However, in the past few months, the severity of the situation has significantly increased, turning the canals into thick, barely moist, garbage pits.
“For a couple of years the water in the canals had been cut alongside increased garbage dumping, but lately there is something very wrong,” says Hesham al-Seefy, a lawyer and lifetime resident of Abu Sir.
Seefy adds that five years ago it was possible to grow a variety of crops with the canal water, but now only resilient crops can survive. More
