Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has determined that it faces the prospect of massive
flooding.

Scientists said Egypt faces a tidal wave from the Mediterranean Sea
over the next few years. They said a slight rise in the sea level could
destroy such major cities as Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said and Rashid as
well as 65 percent of Egypt’s agricultural production.

“The soil compacts with time, so this phenomenon combined with the sea level rise is extremely alarming,” Mosad Kotb, director of the state-owned Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate, said.

Scientists said the entire Nile Delta would be plunged underwater with an 0.5 centimeter rise in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the sea has been eroding the Egyptian coast and spreading salt throughout six million acres of freshwater acquifers.

“We are starting to collect the data now, but we are aware that the
results won’t give us the solution on how to mitigate the seeping of saline water into the aquifer in the long term,” Kotb said.

Scientists said the threat to the Nile Delta intensified with the
construction of the Aswan dam in 1973. The dam is said to have blocked the silt that restored nutrients to farmland eroded by rain and sea water.

Farmers have sought to fight the encroaching Mediterranean on their own.
Some of them have piled up to 0.5 meters of soil and sand to prevent
flooding.

“The sand is poor in nutrients, and needs to be sprayed consistently
with fertilizers to grow anything,” Kotb said.

As a result, the government has been examining alternatives to the Nile
Delta, historically the bread basket of Egypt. Some specialists have
proposed the Cairo area while others pointed to the Sinai Peninsula west of
Israel.

“Sinai and the north coast should be developed agriculturally,” Mohammed
Rai, a chairman at the Supreme Council of Egyptian Universities, told
Egypt’s Al Masri Al Yom daily. “This is the only way a sustainable future
for Egypt’s agriculture can be envisioned.”

So far, the military regime has not decided to counter the threat from
the Mediterranean. The scientists said the Cairo government has assessed
that flooding was not imminent before 2020 and rebuffed efforts to establish
a ministerial panel.

“The government still isn’t showing any willingness to set it up,” Rai
said.

  agriculture, Alexandria, Aswan dam, Damietta, devastate agriculture, Egypt: Tidal wave from the Mediterranean Sea would destroy cities, Nile Delta, Port Said, Rashid, Sinai Peninsula