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Arab Republic of Egypt

Cairo University – Prof. Dr. Mohamed Fahmy Hussein

Toward an Integrated Use of Water Resources in Egypt for the 21st Century

Proposal by

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Fahmy Mohamed Hussein

Soil and Water Depart, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University


Toward an Integrated Use of Water Resources in Egypt for the 21st Century

Mohamed Fahmy Hussein

Abstract

Water resources management is a most important question of national


security in Egypt since the country is quasi-totally depends on the unique water-
offer source available that is the River Nile. Maximization of water-offer and
minimization of water-demand are the logic concepts of any action plan that
would tackle the issue in an effective way. However, the classic administration
in Egypt does not go far away from the routine work concept, except in rare
cases. This leads to losing the power of the nation to deal with the new concepts
and novel solutions.
The present proposal introduces the application of a set of modern
technologies that would actively participate in handling the water crisis in the
country, and provides an innovative vision through the proposed solutions
toward the integration of the use of surface and groundwater resources in the
country. Moreover, it introduces a new concept to increase the national water-
offer and decrease the national water-demand in order to create a balance
between them in Egypt, throughout the 21st century.
This original concept includes the management of the nation’s surface
and groundwater resources, the implementation of new source of energy to help
in enhancing the water inflow into the country, the performance of non-
conventional experimental work and lab measurements for testing and
validating the projected approaches. Last but not the least the whole package is
based on the conjunctive use of a set of new concepts, computer modeling, data
collection and processing.
The future needs of Egypt for additional and free of pollution water are
beyond the present day scope of the relevant governmental services.
Consequently, a rather revolutionary methodology must find a room. Only
university research teamwork might be charged to get a scientific look on the
subject for generating a quit integrated package of water-use solutions in Egypt
for the 21st century.

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Introduction and Background
Egypt is probably a unique exception “among the scarce-water countries” worldwide
as it is the most arid country on Earth, with very scant precipitation. However, an intrusive
river, the River Nile, has ever completely changed the nature of the water “Offer-Demand”
equation in the nation since the dawn of the History.
The Nile was not the unique source that made the life in Egypt but also the genuine
management of the Nile-water and the Nile alluvial soils by the ancient Egyptians that
created a rather distinctive nation. So not only, as Herodotus wrongly said long ago, that
Egypt is the “Gift of the Nile” but Egypt is also the gift of the Egyptians. The evidence is that
other countries have rivers that are probably greater (in terms of discharge) than the Nile but
they did nothing with their rivers during the human history.
Despite the fact that the Nile, compared with other large rivers of the world, started to
have a rather modest discharge since the advent of the Holocene (when the Egyptian
population has displaced from the adjacent lands that became a part of the arid-hot Great
Desert) the population of the country mostly enjoyed a surplus of water resources on the
banks of that river during its long history.
However, with frequent acute, positive or negate, changes in the Nile discharge -
roughly once per decade - around its annual mean (~ 90 billion m3) a great deal of worry
always existed in the country as a result of the destructive nature of the high floods and/or the
severe water shortages. Due to the lack of appropriate technology, the historic attempts to
completely control the Nile discharge has ever ended-up by failure to the extent that the
ancient Egyptians have formerly attributed the caprices of the river to impulsive divine
charisma of power.
By the year 1970, the discharge of the Nile into Egypt was finally entirely controlled,
for the first time in the history, with the completion of the High-Dam (that started 9 years
earlier) at Aswan, in the south of the country. By that epoch, the Egyptian population was just
only about 35million people.
By the start of the 21st century the nation’s population jumped to ~80million people,
and the country currently has an enormous need for a water supply that greatly exceeds its
annual share (of 55.5 billion m3) in the Nile (as fixed by the International Nile-Water
Agreement, signed at the onset of the 20th century by the 9 Nile-Basin Countries.) The critical
water-poverty limit (1000m3/year) has greatly surpassed three decades ago, leaving a very
narrow margin of maneuver for the classic management of the water resources in a country
that depends almost entirely on the Nile for every aspect of life activities. At present, the
country requires >75 billion m3 of water a year in order to satisfy the internal demand for all
purposes.
Evidently, water management in Egypt is the most important “national-security issue”
since it is, simply, a question of life or death. Even with the full-control of the river discharge
at Aswan, forty years ago, many additional measures have had always been undertaken to fill
the ever-widening gap between the water-offer and the water-demand in the country.
Consequently, an integrated use of the water resources is a continual effort that
should, by no means, be ended-up. Each serious single idea, useful concept or new approach
should be looked-at, reviewed, studied, experimented, and finally installed, if it was shown to
be applicable and beneficial to increase the water offer and/or to reduce the water demand, or
both, in the country.
Surface-water resources are mostly appreciated since they are, clearly, readily-
available, greatly guaranteed and highly assured. However, they are vulnerable to pollution
problems Groundwater resources, on the contrary, are much less appreciated due to several
issues related to its lack of availability, modest quality and questionable renewability.
However, they are mostly far from being victim of pollution
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Most of the groundwater resources in a river-basin are renewable through bank-
recharge and irrigation and return-flow. However, such GW may be exploited only at a
certain cost (e.g. the costs of studies, the costs of well digging, and the costs to cover the
daily expenses used to generate the power needed for groundwater uplifting, etc...)
The groundwater resources in the deserts of Egypt are, in most cases, exclusively non-
renewable. Despite being very huge in its total volume, any renewable groundwater reservoir
should be exploited either ad hoc (without planning) or correctly managed according to
rigorous rules based on its annual recharge-rate (for the renewable aquifers). The Nile Delta
aquifer is unconfined to the south - at the delta apex and middle – but confined at the north
(with a saline groundwater wedge from the Mediterranean Sea.) For the non-renewable
groundwater (like that of the Great Desert) the aquifer management is based on a set of
optional and operational GW pumping policies that must accept certain draw-down in the
piezometric levels.
Outside the Nile valley and delta in Egypt, the vast Egyptian deserts have
groundwater resources that are, to a large-extent, still under investigation. However, they are
mostly believed to be non-renewable. The coastal-areas of the deserts of the country, in
particular on the Mediterranean, receive rather trivial annual rainfall that is already locally
used and typically requires complementary irrigation that depends on pumping water from
the fragile fresh groundwater cone from the coastal aquifers which are modestly replenished
through local precipitation and floating on the saline seawater wedge.
Non-conventional water resources mainly include the recycling of the urban-zone and
industry wastewater, the reuse of agricultural drainage water and the desalination of ocean-
water. The good management of water resources mostly consists of maximizing the water-
offer and minimizing the water-demand.
The optimization of the water-demand implicitly means decreasing the water-
transportation losses and other water misuses (e.g. the practice of crop patterns and the
agricultural rotations that consume too much irrigation-water in the rural zones and the poor
efficiency in the transportation of the drinking-water lines in the urban zones.)
The maximization of the water-offer in Egypt would pass by looking for the recycling
of the agricultural drainage water and other waste-waters nation-wide, planning for receiving
additional water from the Nile (however this target includes the river upper-reaches lying far
outside the country.)
The integrated management of water resource should, evidently never be only
considered based on the quantitative aspects (related only to the water discharge) but also it
must rely on issues related to water quality parameters, i.e. the chemistry and microbiology of
water. The outstanding example is the ocean-water that is the greatest water-reservoir on
Earth. Its very high salt-content mostly prevents its direct-use.
Pollutants of several kinds are a direct menace to the reuse of the wastewater.
Pollution-related problems are constantly increasing everywhere in the world due to
agricultural and urban origins. Combating pollution and removing pollutants are two integral
parts of any fine water-management policy. Modern technology offers an interesting chance
for removing pollutants at greater scales than was the case few decades ago.

Problem Description
Since the very start of Ancient Egypt, water management was the main axis of every
aspect of life for the Egyptian farmers who were responsible of giving support to all activities
of existence in the country, from building pyramids to going to war. So, the issue of water
management was the major concern around which they made their rural affiliations in order
to nicely go through with that strong river that flooded their lands about a couple of months,

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once each year. Before the annual flood they have to re-build and reinforce the surface basins
in their fields in order to receive the floods and to compel the water to stay in a given
southern-field, for sometime, before draining it away into a northern-basin and so on, and
they worked out the soil surface into channels that carry the irrigation water to their small
parcels etc. This is just to mention few of the early methods the ancient Egyptians tried out in
order to master the Nile water. In addition, one of the genuine water management examples
the history retained was storing the excess of Nile water during the high-flood years, in the
Fayoum Depression.
By the 19th century the country introduced the” perennial-irrigation system” in order
to cultivate the alluvial soils of Egypt twice per year instead of once per year as it was the
case along all the ancient history. With that major Nile water-use transformation the nation
has seen a chief-step in water management through the implementation of a series of barrages
that were built allover the country to artificially raise the water-level in the main water-
distribution-channels to facilitate the irrigation of the relatively high-leveled soils during Nile
low-stage
By the completion of the High Dam by the year 1970, the country seemed exhausting
all its possible measures that can be undertaken towards a full Nile-water management.
However, with the demographic explosion, throughout the last 4 decades, the concept of an
integrated water-use has had to be revisited.
Nowadays, we have to tackle a multi-dimensional problem. The theoretical water-
poverty limit has been largely surpassed and water quality is already menaced by ever
increasing pollution events, whereas the water-demand is blowing up nation-wide.
Consequently, a net set of concepts must be viewed, examined and worked out. One
of the extreme solutions is that of practicing agricultural activities outside the country across
its borders. One may ask the question what is the benefit of such hysteric solution. The
answer is simple. Each crop has its water-consumption equivalent (in terms of the water used
to cultivate it and to grow it up.) However, the economic value of the different crops is also
highly different. If Egypt went to cultivate some crops outside its borders (in particular in
African countries south of the Great Desert, where rainfall is high enough and the local
populations almost do not make any use of that quite abundant water resources) the country
would save its Nile water for the cultivation of crops of very high economic value. Let us
give an example; the clover that Egypt cultivates for feeding its animal-wealth might be
cultivated (or one of its equivalents) in a rainy country south the Great Desert in order to save
the huge amount of water used each year inside Egypt to cultivate the Egyptian clover.
Another revolutionary concept that receives little or no attention is to make use of the
high exposure of the country to the saline water of the Mediterranean through the installation
of huge water desalination-planets that work with the atomic energy and the desalinated
water might be used even for irrigation. Up till now, the desalinated water is used only to
satisfy the water requirements of some urban-zones in some countries of the Arab Region but
not for irrigation. However, the issue in Egypt is really very crucial and such a “crazy”
concept of the “desalination for irrigation” should not be any more neglected through the
claim based on the extensive costs. Look, we all know that the barrel of mineral water is
more costly than the barrel of crud oil. However, the market of the bottled mineral and
natural-water is ever exploding. Egypt has very recently taken the decision to built 8 nuclear
energy stations on the coast of its Mediterranean coast; primarily for generating electricity.
We might not be too far dreaming if we imagine that one day the country would construct
other nuclear stations for the desalination of seawater for agricultural purposes.
An integrated management of water resources does not only mean efficiently using
what we already have in hand but also looking forward for further acquisitions even if other
might consider that as seeing too far in the future after tomorrow. This far-term planning is
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not yet inscribed in the Egyptian way of thinking about our natural resources. It is the very
time to start right away for changing the current things. Only a university may go ahead and
make the required breakthrough.

Objectives
The objectives of the current proposal may be summed-up in the following
statements:
1) To better define the actual needs of Egypt in terms of water supply for the next decade
and to project the trend further far into the future for the year 2050 according to the
expected growth of the population and the land to be irrigated.
2) To make a scenario for the prospection of the enhancement of the Nile water
discharging into Egypt through possible hydraulic projects on the upper reaches of the
river outside the country
3) To verify the present-day available data on the water balance of the groundwater for
the Nile valley and delta in Egypt.
4) To use the isotope hydrology techniques for improving our knowledge on the
replenished groundwater resources in the Nile valley and delta in Egypt.
5) To simulate the salt-mass balance and the possible displacement of the saline
groundwater wedge in the northern zone of the Nile Delta under different
groundwater pumping scenarios from that unconfined to semi-confined aquifer.
6) To introduce a view of how to manage a potential supply of irrigation water from
nuclear power stations
7) To introduce a conceptual model for the most efficient program for pumping fossil
groundwater in the Nubian sandstone aquifer of the western desert.
8) To run a catastrophic pollution-plume scenario of groundwater and how to tackle the
problem in case it would happen.
9) To initiate a hydraulic model for improved irrigation according to soil type both
reducing the required discharge and improving the irrigation water quality in the
irrigated fields and in the unsaturated zone.
10) To test the currently practiced recycling of the used water in the country.
11) To consider the annual water discharge that wrongly goes to irrigate lands designated
for the enjoyment of a so little fraction of the population; like the golf terrains in the
new urban zones.
12) To consider the scenario of practing agriculture outside the borders of the country in
terms of its impact on reducing the national demand on the irrigation water and
improving the national income.

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Approach and Methods
For carrying out our proposal we will adopt the forecasting and modeling methods as
well as the lab and field experimental work:

1) Making use of the modern developments in the hydrologic models that treat with the
large-scale river basin resources for the implementation of digital model for the Nile
water based on the available national data in the nine Nile-basin countries.
2) Running computer models for the simulation of groundwater flow and chemistry for
the Nile delta and valley.
3) Applying a model for the salinity build-up in the Nile delta groundwater aquifer basin
through irrigation return-flow and other sources.
4) Calculation of the nuclear energy required for seawater desalination for the irrigation
of an additional one million Faddan.
5) To performing laboratory work, field experiment and computerized simulations for
the use of high-end techniques for the recycling the wastewater.
6) To test the potential use of the reverse osmosis for removing water pollutants.
7) To get some isotope-hydrology analytical data on the groundwater resources of the
country through the isotope laboratories of the Authority of Nuclear Energy (ANE) in
Egypt, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria and the
United States Geological Survey (USGS) in California, USA, including the
environmental stable and radioactive isotopes.

Action Plan
1) Collection of the historical and the most recent data on the River Nile discharge in
relation to the total Nile basin water resources as a preparation of the application of a
model for the Nile water offer development through the implementation of new set of
hydraulic projects in the upper reaches of the river to finally increase the Nile-water
discharge into Egypt.
2) To study the potential alternatives for the proper management of Lake Nasser bank
storage in order to introduce a set of measures for its integrated modification to reduce
the overall water-losses through evaporation.
3) Collecting the available hydraulic and chemical data on the aquifers of the Nile delta
and valley for the application of an integrated management of surface and
groundwater resources in the each of these two regions.
4) Creating connections with the relevant authorities for elaboration of a plan for the
potential use of the nuclear energy of the nuclear power stations – that should be soon
installed to the west of Alexandria – for providing desalinated water suitable for
irrigation in the forthcoming decade or later on. The costs of the this ambitious dream
will be for sure included but by no means should it stand against that strategic choice
since the country will be soon in real trouble if no more additional water-offer cannot
be integrated into the present-day supply to tackle the ever increasing water-demand
in the country.
6) Running experimental work on the potential and limits of waste-water recycling in
order to increase the water-offer and improving the global water-use efficiency in
Egypt.
7) Carrying out experimental work on the potential large-scale application of the reverse
osmosis technique for the removal of pollutants out form waste water.
9) Sampling some selected groundwater pumping-wells in the Nile delta basin for the
measurement of their environmental isotope contents in order to integrate these
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isotopic data into the hydrochemical model of the Nile Delta aquifer to improve our
knowledge about the aquifer parameters that should by implemented in an integral use
of the local surface and groundwater resources.

Expected Outcomes
The outputs of the proposed research work could be outline in the following items:
1) Obtaining a better estimate for the water demand in Egypt for the next 50 years.
2) Revising the Nile-basin countries water demand and cooperation for increasing the
Nile water input into Egypt.
3) Getting a conceptual and a digital model for water-balance of the Nile delta and valley
groundwater.
4) Attaining a conceptual and a digital model for salt-balance of the Nile delta and valley
groundwater including crisis management if, potentially, a large-scale pollution- event
might take place.
4) Introducing an environmental isotope-hydrology data set for the Nile delta and valley
groundwater.
5) Providing a conceptual and a digital model for the salt-masse balance of the Nile delta
and valley groundwater.
6) Giving a clear idea on the potential use of the nuclear energy for desalinating seawater
in Egypt for supplying an important extra water inflow into the country to cover its
required agricultural expansion in the future.

Expected Participation of Foreign and/or External Organizations


Several internal (Egyptian) and exterior (foreign and or international) institutions and
organizations may be potentially interested in such type of research work and may support it
in several ways, financially or otherwise through material institutional help. We suggest that
the following organizations would be interested in our proposal and intended work:

1) The Office of the Prime Minister of Egypt


2) The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
3) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of United Nations, Vienna, Austria
4) The United States Geological Survey (USGS), USA
5) Research institutes in the Arab region (e.g. The Kuwait Fund for Development)
6) The African Unity fund institutions (e.g. The African Development Bank, ADB)
7) Muslim world fund agencies (e.g. The Islamic Bank)
8) The Canadian Aid
9) The American Aid (US-Aid)
10) The European Community (EC) and one or more of its environmental organization
active in the North-South dialogue

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References
A. A. Nada, M. F. Hussein and K. Forehlich, 2001
Climatic changes and isotopic content along River Nile valley
In: International Conference on the Study of Environmental Changes using Isotope
Techniques, Book of Extended Synopses, IAEA-CN-80, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 April
2001, pp 101-102
Conway, D. & Hulme, M. (1996). The Impacts of Climate Variability and Future Climate
Change in the Nile Basin on Water Resources in Egypt. Water Resources
Development, 12(3), pp. 277-296.
Daif, M. A, M. F. Hussein, H. A Khater and Sanaa S. Tawfik, 2005
Comparison of chloride breakthrough curves (BTC) in three different soils and their
separates. J. Agric. Sci. Mansoura Univ, 30 (8): 4901-4968
Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). (1999). The Arab Republic of Egypt:
Initial National Communication on Climate Change: Prepared for the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC, pp. 160.
http://www.climate.org/CI/africa.shtml.
El-Tarabily, K.A., A.A. Soaud, M.E. Saleh and S. Matsumoto. 2006.
Isolation and characterisation of sulphur-oxidising bacteria, including strains of Rhizobium, from
calcareous sandy soils and their effects on nutrient uptake and growth of maize (Zea mays L.).
Australian J. of Agricultural Research. Vol. 57(1): 101-111.
Fahmy M. Hussein, Robert L. Michel and Klaus Froehlich, 1998
Historical isotope changes in the River Nile and their relation to the study of groundwater
hydrology of the Nile valley and delta.
In: Gambling with Groundwater - Physical, chemical and Biological Aspects of Aquifer-
Stream Relation. Las Vegas, USA, Brahana et al (eds.) pp 105-110
Frihy, O. E. (2003). The Nile Delta-Alexandria Coast: Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise,
Consequensces and Adaptation. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global
Change, 8(2), pp. 115-138.
Mohamed Fahmy Hussein, Ail Islam, Sawsan Gamal, Moloto-A-Kenguemba Caetan and
Chantal Djebebe, 2008
Geochemistry and Isotope Hydrology of an Urban Aquifer, Subtropical Africa, RCA
Accepted in the bulletin “Isotope and Radiation Research” of the Middle Eastern
Regional Radioisotope Centre for the Arab Countries
Hulme, M., Doherty, R., Ngara, T., New, M. & Lister, D. (2001). African Climate
Change: 1900-2100. Climate Research, 17(2), pp. 145-168.
Briefing notes, july 5th 2007 - 8 -
Hussein, M. F, 2008
Parameters of Conservative Solute Transport in Three Sediments, Egypt
Accepted in the bulletin “Isotope and Radiation Research” of the Middle Eastern
Regional Radioisotope Centre for the Arab Countries
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC). (2007). Working Group I: The
Physical Science Basis, Technical Summary: The Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2001). Working Group II: Impacts,
Adaptation and Vulnerability African region: The third Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2007a). Working Group I: The
Physical Science Basis, Regional Climate Projections-Africa: the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 849-
867. http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2007b). Working Group II:
Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,Summary for Policymakers: The Fourth

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Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 1-23.
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM13apr07.pdf.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 21-87.
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_TS.pdf.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 489-525.
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg2/377.htm.
M. F. Hussein, 2001
Water flow and solute transport using environmental isotopes and modeling.
In: Isotope based assessment of groundwater renewal in water scarce regions.
Proceedings of a Final Research Co-ordination Meeting held in Vienna, 18-21 October
1999, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, TECDOC-1246. Pp 231-271
M. Fahmy Hussein, R L Michel, A Nada, K. Froehlich, S. Atta and Tanweer, 1999
Use of isotope geochemistry to determine the effectiveness of water management
strategies, Nile valley, Egypt
In: International Symposium on Isotope Techniques in Water Resources Development
and Management. Book of Extended Synopses, IAEA-SM-361, Vienna, Austria, 10-14
May 1999, pp 63-69
Mohamed Fahmy Hussein, 2001
Monitoring of Land and Water Degradation: Environmental Dimensions and Restoration.
In: Natural Resources and Their Conservation in Egypt and Africa, Institute of African
Research and Studies, Cairo University, 27 p
Muller, M. (2007). Adapting to climate change. Environment and Urbanization, 19(1),
pp. 99-113.
Nada A., Hussein M. F., Al Amir S. and Ramadan, E., 1998
Isotopic and chemical composition of surface and ground-waters in northern Nile valley
land, Egypt.
In: Fourth Arab Conference on the Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy, Tunis: 14-18/1998
AAEA, pp 139-157
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2004).
Development and Climate Change in Egypt: Focus on Costal Resources and the
Nile: Working Party on Global and Structural Policies Working Party on
Development Co-operation and Environment, pp. 68.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/4/33330510.pdf.
Soaud A. Abdou., Fareed H. Al Darweesh and Mohd. Iftekhar Ahmed. 2005.
Removing Salt Deposits from Greenhouse Cooling pad with Acidified water Using Sulfur Burner
Technology. The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference, April 24 th - 26th, 2005.
AlAin, UAE. pp. CFS-16 – CFS-20.
Soaud A. Abdou., Fareed H. Al Darweesh and Motior M. Rahman. 2005.
Effect of acidified water and elemental sulfur application on growth and nitrogen recovery of corn
using 15N fertilizer. The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference, April 24 th - 26th,
2005. pp. CFS-10 – CFS-15.
Soaud, A.A., M. E. Saleh, K. A. El-Tarabily and S. Matsumoto. 2008.
Effect of Amending Urea Fertilizer with Sulfur and Sulfur-Oxidizing Bacteria Strains on
Precision Management of Ammonia Volatilization Loss From Calcareous Sandy Soils.
Proceeding of 9th International Conference on Precision Agriculture. July 20-23, 2008, Denver,
Colorado, USA. Pages 1-11.
Strzepek, K. M. & Yates, D. N. (2000). Responses and Thresholds of the Egyptian
Economy to Climate Change Impacts on the Water Resources of the Nile River.
Climate Change, 46(3), pp. 339-356.

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Curriculum Vitae
Prename Mohamed Fahmy Mohamed Name Hussein
Birth Date 16/12/1948 Birth Place Cairo, Egypt
Nationality Egyptian
Social Situation Married and father of two children (19 & 21 years old)
Passport N° 4201 Central Administration of Passports, Tahrir, Cairo
Address 9 Falaky st., Apt 20, 11461 Cairo, Egypt
Cellulaire (+2) 019 261 59 52
E-mail fahmy@link.net
Qualification Doctorat d’État (Doctorat ès Sciences Naturelles)
(Hydrology and Isotope Geochemistry)
Faculty of Sciences, Paris University, Orsay, France
Ph.D. (courses), M.Sc. (Soils and Water) (courses & thesis),
B.Sc. (Spoils and Water) Fac. of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt
Discipline Isotope Hydrology and Geochemistry
Languages English (perfect), French (perfect) and German (beginner)
IT High-end scientific & general-purpose software and Internet
Position Prof. of Isotope Geochemistry, Bangui University, RCA (2006-09)
Conseiller du Ministre de l’Agriculture, RCA (2004-2006)
Professor, Cairo University (2008)
Assistant Professor, Cairo University (1997-2008)
Lecturer, Cairo University (1990)
Research worker, Paris University (XI), France (1982-1990)
Lecturer Assistant, Cairo University (1975-1990)
Assistant, Cairo University (1970-1975)
Awards IAEA, 1993
Fulbright, 1996
Agricultural Faculties, 1999
Egyptian Soil Science Society, 2000
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, 2009
Membership American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Soil Science Society of Egypt (SSSE)
Work Cairo University (1970-present)
Head of Isotope Hydrology lab at the Middle Eastern Regional
Radioisotope Center for the Arab Countries, 1992-1996.
Conseiller at the Ministry of Agriculture,
Central African Republic, RCA, (contract through the
“Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa”, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Egypt, (2004-2009).
Research topics Isotope hydrology and geochemistry, water quality, modeling of solute
transport in both the saturated and unsaturated zones

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Expertise
A- University teaching
Course Level Language
1. Environmental hydrochemistry B.Sc. and postgraduate French +
English
2. Geochemical Modeling B.Sc. and postgraduate French +
English
3. Isotope Hydrology Postgraduate French +
English
4. Environmental Isotopes Postgraduate French +
English
5. Water Resources B.Sc. Arabic + English
6. Computer Applications B.Sc. Arabic + English
7. University Physics B.Sc. Arabic + English
8. Isotope Geochemistry Postgraduate French +
English
B- Computer experience and water flow modeling
High-end capacity in modeling of water flow, geochemistry of pollutants, tracers,
isotopes and solute transport in the saturated and unsaturated porous zone using special-
purpose packages (e.g. RETC, STANMOD, UNSATCHEM, PHREEQCIV, CHEMFLO,
NETPATH and ROSETTA). Wide experience in general purpose software (spreadsheets,
presentations, word-processing and Internet on compatible and Apple Macintosh PC’s).
C- Analytical Experience
1. Chemical analysis of water and soils.
2. Isotope analysis (18O, 2H, 3H, 12C, 14C, 34S, 15N) in groundwater & sediments.
3. Dynamic experimentation of water flow and solute transport in porous media.
4. X-ray and scanning electron microscopy.
5. Polarizing microscope for studying thin sections.
D- Research Projects and Publications
Principal Investigator of major research projects (with The International Atomic Energy
Agency - IAEA, Vienna - The United States Geological Survey and Cairo University) and
Fulbright fellow in the USGS, California, USA. These Projects has focused on the
environmental quality as well as the recharge and pollution of groundwater. I’m author of
multiple research articles. I have translated several scientific books and articles; for example,
on hydrology, soil resources, fossil and active aquifers, paleo-climatology of the Great
Sahara, the application of numerical simulation in groundwater geochemistry and dynamics
of water flow and solute transport in porous media.

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