The figures were presented during a plenary session chaired by Senate Speaker Essam El-Din Farid. The session was attended by Minister of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Mahmoud Fawzy and senior senators who had submitted questions on adapting to climate change and managing Nile inflows in the country’s waterways.
Sewilam stressed that the numbers illustrate the growing challenge of water scarcity in Egypt and the urgent need for strategic interventions under the government’s “Egypt Water System 2.0” initiative, which aims to modernize and optimize the national water management system.
According to Sewilam, Egypt's annual water demand of 88.55 bcm is divided as follows: 68.1 bcm for agriculture, 12.45 bcm for drinking water, 5.5 bcm for industry, and 2.5 bcm for other uses.
In comparison, the country’s renewable water resources are estimated at 65.35 bcm per year, including Egypt’s 55.5 bcm share of Nile waters, 650 million cubic metres from desalination, 1.3 bcm from rainfall, and 7.9 bcm from deep non-renewable groundwater. The ministry currently compensates for the gap by reusing 23.2 bcm of water annually.
Sewilam highlighted that per capita water availability has sharply declined, from 2,000 cubic metres per year in 1962 to below the water poverty line of 1,000 cubic metres in the 1990s and reaching around 500 cubic metres per year today.
He noted that while Egypt’s net population growth has slowed from 1.95 million in 2011 to 1.28 million in 2024, increasing population and water demand continue to strain resources.
The minister presented the government’s Water System 2.0 initiative, a multi-pronged strategy leveraging modern technology, smart water management, and infrastructure upgrades to maximize resource efficiency.
He outlined ten strategic pillars of the programme, focusing on sustainable, smart, and climate-resilient water management.
The first pillar, water treatment and reuse for food production, includes the agricultural drainage network that spans 22,000 km and is currently reusing 23.2 bcm/year.
Three major wastewater treatment projects — New Delta, Bahr Al-Baqar, and Al-Mahsameh — are under construction, adding 4.8 bcm/year to the system.
The minister also emphasized the potential of desalination for intensive food production.
The second pillar, smart water management, uses rainfall forecasting, satellite imagery, drones, and platforms such as Digital Earth Africa to monitor irrigation, canals, water weeds, and shoreline changes in real time.
This pillar also includes machine learning modelling of water distribution networks to improve planning, operational efficiency, and crop irrigation.
The third pillar, digital transformation, focuses on GIS databases, digital licensing systems, and mapping of water networks to enhance transparency, speed up responses, and support decision-making.
Infrastructure rehabilitation constitutes the fourth pillar, including upgrades to the High Dam, Toshka spillway, and Dirot Barrages, along with broader projects to maintain major canals and irrigation structures.
The fifth pillar addresses climate adaptation and mitigation, with coastal protection projects in Alexandria, Damietta, Matrouh, and Rasheed, alongside 1,627 flood mitigation structures nationwide with a total capacity of 350 million cubic metres.
Additionally, 284 groundwater wells have been converted to solar power, reducing carbon emissions.
The sixth pillar, the National Project for Nile and Branch Regulation, focuses on restoring water flow capacity, removing unauthorised constructions, and enhancing operational efficiency.
Priority flows are 270 m³/day behind Aswan, 100 m³/day in the Rosetta branch, and 60 m³/day in the Damietta branch.
Secondary flows expand these capacities further, while 334 illegal constructions have been removed along the Rosetta branch, covering 33,795 m².
Additional pillars include agricultural modernization, public awareness campaigns under the “Ala El-Qadr” initiative, regional and international water leadership through the AWARe program, and integration of renewable energy into water infrastructure.
Sewilam emphasized that presenting these figures in the Senate aimed to inform legislators of the scale of Egypt’s water challenges and highlight the government’s commitment to bridging the gap between demand and renewable resources through smart, technology-driven solutions under Water System 2.0.
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