Background
The whole of the Arab Region is facing numerous challenges pertaining to water resources availability, quality and management. Desert conditions prevail across more than 85% of the Region reflecting hyper arid conditions. Groundwater (renewable and nonrenewable) provides an avenue for resolving part of the problem, but only if managed properly. Wady systems prevailing throughout most of the Arab countries do possess potentials for groundwater exploration, even in shallow aquifers. Appropriate assessment of this potential seems inevitable. Traditional trends in addressing hydrological problems, which are widely adopted by the region, however, require revisiting. Concepts of wady hydrology need to be applied rather than resorting to common approaches which have been developed, basically, for temperate climates. Moreover, field data collection in vast uninhabited desert areas needs to be augmented by novel methodologies for remote sensing, not to mention the availability of numerous valuable data sources for public access. A unified methodology for evaluating the extent, source, age, potential utilization and extraction economies for groundwater will be a major achievement.
The UNDP/GEF-funded Eastern Desert Project, which is executed by Cairo University and the National Water Research Institute, represents an attempt for tackling the previous challenges. The project aims at:
1- Developing a replicable integrated model (methodology) for evaluating the extent and development potential of ground water resources in arid lands, with the Eastern Desert of Egypt as a pilot site.
2-The model will be replicable for similar arid areas; North of Sudan, Yemen , Oman and Saudi Arabia .
3-Introducing new techniques and procedures to address arid region hydrology.
4-Integrating research with development as prevailing conditions and constrains.
5-Building national capacities and providing a pool of experts capable of conducting proper groundwater management.
Ultimately, it is believed that the project findings will lead to the formulation of a strategy and action plan for sustainable utilization of groundwater resources of the Eastern Desert within an IWRM prospective. The resulting strategy and action plan is envisioned to address issues concerning;
1- Identifying and prioritizing areas of high potential for groundwater exploitation (where are water resources?)
2- Identifying estimates of available resources (How many resources are present?)
3- Recommending exploitation rates (How much could be pumped?)
4- Estimating time span for sustainable use (For How Long can specific rates be sustained?)
5- Predicting development scenarios (What sectors shall benefit and what type of development can be sustained; agricultural, tourism, mining, industry..etc?)
6- Predicting regional environmental impacts associated with development scenarios.
7- Establishing a functioning institutional set up for managing these resources.
8- Achieving public participation and stakeholders involvement.
9- Adopting cost recovery mechanisms.
10- Applying physical monitoring systems.
11- Adopting monitoring of performance systems.
12- Integrated new resources into nation water budget.
Overview of the Eastern Desert Project
The Eastern Desert Project is a three-year Targeted Research Project funded by UNDP/GEF. The project explores new avenues to better estimation of the development potential of groundwater in aquifers underlying wady systems. This is a situation of common occurrence in almost all the Arab countries which are characterized by a dense network of ephemeral wadies that were once permanently flowing, a long time ago. The prevailing hyper-arid climatic conditions results into extreme water scarcity and desert environment. Nevertheless, these wadies are subject to sporadic rainfall which may develop into flash flooding events where a relatively large amount of precipitation occurs during a short period of time, and with different return periods. Following this extreme water scarcity, every drop of available water becomes highly valuable.
The project aims to develop a replicable model for demonstrating different approaches to integrate groundwater resources of watersheds into water budget in arid regions. The project conducts comprehensive studies leading to the development, validation and demonstration of techniques for evaluating the extent of alternative water resources arising from sporadic precipitation over large watersheds in arid and semi-arid areas while using the Eastern Desert of Egypt as the pilot site. The comprehensive techniques encompass the use of various geochemical and isotopic techniques, surface and ground water modeling, analysis of satellite images and digital elevation data, seismic and drilling data and field observations. Tasks inferred by the project include rainfall analysis and prediction of design storms, isotopic analysis of GW samples to determine its renewability, soil sampling, infiltration tests, remote sensing tasks to develop mosaics for geology, land use, soil and elevations of the entire Eastern Desert of Egypt, surface water quaternary basins, geophysical tests, groundwater modeling, and exploration of development scenarios.
State-of-the-art techniques and technologies are applied by the project for assessing the development potential of groundwater associated with wady systems in arid regions and its impacts on national water resources planning. These include remote sensing and satellite imagery hydro-geology applications, geochemical and isotopic analysis for determining the renewability and source of groundwater, watershed analysis, surface and groundwater modeling. An integrated methodology for assessing and estimating groundwater quantities, quality and sustainable utilization is proposed and is tested for the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
The project develops procedures that can be used to accurately estimate the available groundwater resources, its distribution, quantity, and development potential. These are tested for the Eastern Desert of Egypt and are potentially applicable for all Arab and MENA countries to enhance planning for water management with minimum environmental, financial, and social risks. The project outcomes are geared to assist countries of the region, especially Egypt , in achieving national goals and policies to meet increased demand of water, and provide valuable input to the national water resources management strategies and plans.
Partners
The project is executed in an integrated manner among the following partners:
1- Cairo University (CU):
a)- Irrigation and Hydraulics Dept., Faculty of Engineering ,
b)- Center for Environmental Hazard Mitigation , (CEHM)
2- Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI):
c)- National Water Research Center (NWRC)
I- Research Institute for Groundwater
II- Water Resources Research Institute
d)- Groundwater Sector
e)- Central Directorate for Information and Decision Support
3- Western Michigan University ( WMU; International Consultant )
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