Egypt’s parliament has passed a law banning the cultivation of crops that require a large amount of water, amid fears that a massive Ethiopian dam being built upstream could cut into the country’s share of the Nile.
The law passed late Sunday would ban the cultivation of rice, bananas and other crops, with violators facing prison time and a fine of up to $3,000. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi would need to approve the law.
The move is yet another example of how concern about water, one of the world’s most valuable commodities, is forcing change in farming, laws and even international diplomacy.
The reservoir behind Ethiopia’s new $4 billion Grand Renaissance Dam, could be filled as soon as this year.
How fast it does so could have devastating consequences for farmers who have depended on the Nile for millennia to irrigate strategic crops for Egypt’s 96 million people, expected to grow to 128 million by 2030.
Safeguarding Egypt’s share of the Nile, on which the country relies for industry and drinking water as well as farming, is now at the top of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s agenda as he begins a second term.
At the same time, authorities are finally tackling widespread illegal growing of the water-intensive rice crop, showing a sense of urgency that even climate change and rapid population growth has failed to foster.
The crackdown means Egypt will likely be a rice importer in 2019 after decades of being a major exporter.
Mostafa al-Naggari, who heads the rice committee of Egypt’s agricultural export council, says if the government sticks to the new approach Egypt will likely have to import as much as 1 million tonnes of rice next year.
Cairo has decreed that 724,000 feddans (750,000 acres) of rice can be planted this year, which grain traders estimate is less than half of the 1.8 million feddans actually cultivated in 2017 – far in excess of the officially allotted 1.1 million feddans.
Ethiopia has maintained that its dam project will not have a significant impact on Egypt and other countries downstream. Ethiopia hopes the dam will help transform it into a global hydroelectric power.
Egypt disagrees but realizing there is little it can do to stop Ethiopia, the country is building desalinization plants on the Red Sea. Doing so will reduce its dependence on the fresh waters of the Nile river as Ethiopia nears completion of the dam.
