الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 295 |  |  |
| | | from | 295 | | |
Abstract
Water is a fundamental human need and a key element of natural capital, not only to sustain life but also to insure a suitable standard of living, where providing adequate water supply is a prerequisite for human life and economic development (Sullivan, 2002, GWP, 2009 & EU 2011). While the deprive from adequate water supplies; of both suitable quantities and quality; contributes to the economic costs of poor health, added costs for the purchase of water either directly or virtually through imported goods, and/or time and energy wasted in collecting water (Howard and Bartram, 2003). Not to mention the social and political instability irrupts due to concurrent shortages of water supplies and international food prices shocks, including the uprisings in food-importing countries in North Africa known as the “Arab Spring” (Jackson, 2013, Hampton, 2015 and Sadoff et al., 2015).
Therefore, lack of water security not only hinders development and economic growth (Gutierrez, 1999), but also is seen as stressor aggregating existing challenges facing the society (Sadoff et al., 2015).
The WHO (2003) stresses the negative impacts of lack of access to safe water on all aspects of live such as people’s health, development and poverty alleviation. As well as the reversed impact on school attendance caused by lack of safe water and appropriate sanitation in schools. Not to mention the losses in crop production, the health of livestock, and manufacturing services because of low water quality and/or quantities. Therefore, the integration of water data within economic accounting systems is increasingly gaining importance to ensure sustainability (WB, 1998, Sullivan, 2002 & FAO, 2012). Furthermore, and due to the impact of water management on most of the activities in the society, water institutions should be part of the broader planning of the national economy (Sadoff & Muller, 2009).
In 2000, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Covenant’s supervisory body, indirectly recognized the right to water by interpreting the right to health as an inclusive right, extending it over the timely and appropriate health care to those factors that determine good health. These include access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation , a sufficient supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related education and information (WHO, 2003).
While in 2002, it was directly recognized by stating that: “the right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living, particularly since it is one of the most fundamental conditions for survival.”
Egypt multi-facet water-challenges are not limited to being one of the world’s most water-scarce countries (Oestigaard, 2012), but they extend to the increasingly population growth; which escalates water demands by all the sectors, in addition to environmental protection requirements and the forecasted negative impacts on water availability due to climate change. While the political issues arising by and between the Nile Basin’s countries on the Nile water redistribution threatening Egypt’s historical share which is the country’s sole source of fresh water (UNDP & INP, 2008).
According to Abou-Ali H. (2003), evaporation has already increased by 10% due to an increased average temperature. While the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) (2014) confirms that despite the inter-annual storage in Lake Nasser behind the High Aswan Dam, Egypt was forced to reduce its water use due to the prolonged 1979-1987 drought. Therefore, Egypt is vulnerable to changes in the Nile river flows that might be caused in the future by climate change, putting water resources as one of the three most vulnerable sectors to climate change together with coastal zones and agricultural resources.
While the debate over the historical rights in the Nile’s water between Egypt and Sudan on one side and the remaining nine countries of the Nile Basin (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic, and South of Sudan) on the other side, threatens Egypt’s share (55.5 bcm) in the Nile water (Doss and Milne, 2001, Steele, 2010, and Oestigaard, 2012).
Since 1997, Egypt’s per capita amount of water has dropped below the water poverty line (1000 m3/person) (MWRI, 2005). Moreover, it is expected to DROP to 350 cubic meter by 2025 and to fall to less than 300 cubic meter/year in 2050 (Oestigaard, 2012), which threatens the economic development, environmental and human health and well-being (adopted from Chenoweth, 2008a). Moreover, being a water stressed country with escalating population; aggravates the impacts of the hydro-climatic (Sadoff et al., 2015).
Within limited water resources, the increasing demand on water led to sectoral competition over water resources. Whereas the agriculture sector withdraws about 85 percent of Egypt’s water resources, it contributes by about 14 percent to the GDP and employs about 40 percent of the labor force (MWRI, 2014). The CIA (2014) Fact book, on the other hand, estimates the domestic and services sectors’ water withdrawal at around 8 percent and 6 percent of freshwater resources, respectively. Adding that the services sector employs 47 percent of labor force (2011 estimates) and contributes to about 48% of the GDP (2013 estimates), and the industrial sector employs around 24 percent of labor force and contributes to about 37 percent to the GDP; which puts the agricultural sector at an intense competition with other sectors.
While the 2008 peaking prices of commodity and energy raising food-import bills’ stimulated food security concerns. Increasingly, these prices became since then more volatile and unpredictable (Katic P. G. et al., 2013). Additionally, agricultural land production is widely directed to non-food production for the benefit of crops for industrial or other purposes such as biofuel crops (Oestigaard, 2012).
The study applies economic principles and tools to water management guided by the following facts:
a) Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources.
b) Water is a basic human right and is an indispensable input towards the fulfillment of most of the remaining human rights.
c) Although water is an economic good, it performs vital indirect functions of public good.
Therefore, to rationalize the use of this precious resource without increasing the sufferance of the poor (25.2 percent of the population are poor in addition to 23.7 percent of the population are near poor - based on analysis of CAPMAS’s 2011 Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey- HIECS (WFP, 2013a)), the study driven by the need to develop a vision and a strategy for managing water (APP, 2007) and not to limit water management to being an engineering problem (Olmstead & Stavins, 2007), concludes with an economic strategy to attain water security in Egypt. As strategic planning, presents the pathway towards achieving water security by taking the lead towards proactive management of risks instead of the reactive management of the impacts of water scarcity (Sadoff et al., 2015).
Following the analytical descriptive method; the study presents and analyses the collected data and information on the present and future water resources and usages to realize the objectives of the study. Applying the SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), to conclude with the most applicable economic adaptation strategy towards Egypt’s water security.
It worth mentioning that the study does not intend to present an inclusive strategy or solution due to the divergence of water security issues between several ministries that raises the need to formulate a committee on the highest level to put such a strategy incorporating all the efforts towards accomplishing water security.
The study concludes with the recommendation to include water data into public economic accounting systems of the country where all parties participate in water-related planning and implementation of the relevant action plans (Sullivan, 2002, WWAP, 2012), guided by water scarcity figures on forming policies and allocating resources within the overall context of sustainable development (Chenoweth, 2008a). As well as the re-consideration of the priorities of water management to shift it from satisfying the needs of the farmers to meeting the strategic goals of the country, which should be indicated from a broader picture considering the national, regional and international situation and trends. The country’s strategic goals should be prioritized accordingly and to be supported by awareness campaigns to ensure the public participation in the fulfillment of these goals. Not to mention the fact that these are all elements required to design effective water scarcity coping strategies (FAO, 2012).