CAIRO: National as well as regional efforts are being made to resist desertification which currently poses one of the most critical environmental threats worldwide, says one expert in the field.
Dr Ismail El Bagouri, desertification consultant at the Desert Research Centre, Cairo and member of the Science and Technology Committee, UN Convention for Combating Desertification, underlined that while regional anti-desertification meetings abound to discuss latest technologies and studies undertaken in the field, each and every country in the region has to carry out its own plans to attend to the problems in question.
El Bagouri explained: “When the Arabian Gulf countries represent the core of the problem, the issue varies from one country to another. This calls for adopting national plans that can draw assistance from the UN convention that supplies both information and funding according to need, in a bid to face a threat that’s sweeping over the entire globe.
El Bagouri stressed: “I would like to draw attention to the fact that so many, including some experts, define desertification only as the invasion of desert sands in agricultural and populated areas.
He clarified: “This is only part of the problem, but desertification is as much the reduction of soil productivity or loss of complete production due to natural or human-induced factors.
El Bagouri added: “In Egypt we don’t really have statistics to show the scale of this invasion, but field work indicates that, in addition to desertification, the mismanagement of water sources is an important aspect of the problem.
The expert explained that to resist the threat of moving sands, several techniques have been adopted, especially in Gulf states like Kuwait, which continues to suffer from chronic sandstorms known as “El Toz that hit the country once every year, causing the loss of green areas and infrastructure, including airports.
El Bagouri commented: “Treatment in this case begins at the sources of sand-drifts and the transition pathway as well as at the sands’ settlements areas.
He pointed out that in Egypt, areas west of the Nile Valley in Menyia, Asuit and Bani Suweif as well as the Sinai Peninsula are facing a similar threat owing to their location close to desert terrains.
“But I would like to underline that desertification here is mostly triggered by human-induced factors which have reduced the soil’s productivity by 25 percent.
“Besides the movement of sands, the soil in the Nile Valley as well as in the newly reclaimed lands has been negatively affected by soil salinity.
“So much so that that I can safely say that 2.1 acres, making up 29 percent of cultivated land countrywide, have been hit by salinity that results from overuse of irrigation water, insect killers and fertilizers as well as the leakage of sewerage water to cultivated land.
“In Egypt, those faulty practices have their tolls besides the climate’s aridity, noted El Bagouri. “In the long run the overuse of these items poisons that soil and dampens the arability of the land.
Speaking about the problem in the north coast he said that these areas, considered the most fertile due to rainfall, are suffering from the mismanagement of rainwater.
“The rainfall is never regular; it could rain torrentially one day and suffer a dearth at other times. But we have already started efforts to divert the flow of water to ancient Roman wells.
“Initially large amounts of water, which was estimated at 100 million cubic meters, were lost in the sea due to lack of any storage plans.
El Bagouri said that in Sinai several dams and terraces have been built to ensure proper storage and circulation of water. West of the Nile Valley tree belts have been set up on the western fringes to resist desertification.
“These are mostly olive and fig trees that are known for their ability to resist salinity.
In the Western Desert, efforts are in full swing to make best use of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, the biggest underground water reserve in the world. “I would like to draw attention [to the fact] that the quality of the water in this reservoir is even superior to that of the Nile Valley, said El Bagouri.
“The problem in Egypt is manageable provided we ensure the right kind of planning. But we have to press ahead with it. It’s no longer a side concern. he added.
