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Water supply and demand and a desalination option for Sinai, Egypt

Article  in  Desalination · May 2001

DOI: 10.1016/S0011-9164(01)00167-9

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 Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81

Water supply and demand and a desalination option for

Sinai, Egypt
Magdy Abou Rayana*, Berge Djebedjiana, Ibrahim Khaledb
a
Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt
Tel: +20 (50) 345758; Fax +20 (3) 592-0641; email: mrayan@usa.com
b
Water Department, Sinai Development Authority, Egypt

Received 27 October 2000; accepted 6 November 2000

Abstract
The development of non-conventional water resources in Egypt is a must in order to respond to the continuously
increasing demand. The present paper presents the results of an investigation undertaken in order to evaluate technically
and economically the installed desalination units in Sinai. The available water resources were evaluated. Forecast study
was undertaken in order to evaluate the expected shortage. The future need for desalination units was identified. The
main objective of this work is to identify the potential sites for desalination project implementation.

Keywords: Sinai; Water resources; Desalination

1. Introduction taken dealing with: (1) water resources (including

non-conventional) and (2) water use.
Egypt is facing a water scarcity due to over-
Sinai, particularly the Gulf of Aqaba region,
population, industrialization and agricultural
is promising for Egypt’s economic growth. The
expansion. The Sinai and Red Sea areas are
only disadvantage for the development of this
suffering from water shortages. These two areas
area is water. The study has shown clearly that
are identical in geographical conditions. They are
water desalination is the most appropriate way to
away from the Nile with limited underground
respond to the water shortage problem.
water resources. Both areas are important for
A Geographical Information System (GIS)
Egypt’s economic growth. The present study is
tool was used to identify the areas under risk and
focused on Sinai. A detailed analysis was under-
the necessary plant size and technology; the
expected water cost was also calculated. The
*Corresponding author. study also gives an estimation of the required

Presented at the conference on Desalination Strategies in South Mediterranean Countries, Cooperation between
Mediterranean Countries of Europe and the Southern Rim of the Mediterranean, sponsored by the European Desalination
Society and Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs de Tunis, September 11–13, 2000, Jerba, Tunisia.
0011-9164/01/$– See front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
74 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81

projects to solve the water shortage problem. Rafah

Water resources and their use were evaluated. Port Said Sheikh Zuwayid
Romana El-Arish
Finally, scenarios were developed in order to
estimate the desalination projects required. Bir El-Abd Abu Aweigila

El-Quseima
Gifgafa El-Hasana

2. Water resources in Sinai Ismailia North Sinai

The function of water resources management El-Suez El-Kuntilla
Nakhl
is to:
• assess the present water resources El-Themed
• provide reliable information on the availabil- Ras Sudr
ity and quality of surface and groundwater Asal Taba

• provide scenarios for the development and use South Sinai

of water. Abu Zenima Nuweiba
Below is a general description of Sinai and Abu Rudeis

h
Gu
the assessment of resources, its availability and

qaba
lf o

quality. Saint Catherine

fS

of A
Abu Durba Dahab
The Sinai Peninsula has an area of 59,438 km2
ue

(Fig. 1). Sinai includes some plains and high-

z

El-Tor

Gulf
Gebeil
lands (Fig. 2). The weather in the plains is similar Red Sea Nebk
to other parts of Egypt, mainly dry and warm.
Sharm El-Sheikh
The weather of the highlands differs from other
parts of the Sinai in temperature and rainfall, It is
colder, with a minimum of 10°C difference in
temperature. In this district, the rainfall increases Fig. 1. Sinai Peninsula and North and South Sinai
and reaches that of the Mediterranean district. governorates.
The total population is 254,000, which is
mainly Bedouin (60%) and the rest is located in
small cities such as El-Arish and Sharm El-
Sheikh. The population growth rate of 2.87% is Altitudes (in meters)
the highest in Egypt.
> 1500 m
The water resources in Sinai can be classified
into the following categories: 1000 - 1500 m
• renewable resources from rain 500 - 1000 m
• underground water 200 - 500 m
• potable water transported by pipeline 0 - 200 m
• desalinated water

2.1. Renewable resources from rain (precipi-

tation)
Despite that in Sinai some places possess a Fig. 2. Topography of Sinai.
 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81 75

Coastal Aquifer
Annual Rainfall (mm/year)
Karstified Carbonate Aquif
> 200 Nubian Sandstone Aquifer
100 - 200 Fractured Rocks Aquifer

50 - 100
20 - 50
10 - 20
5 - 10
2-5
Fig. 4. Main aquifers in Sinai.

Fig. 3. Annual precipitation in Sinai.

reasonable precipitation rate of 200 mm/y

(Fig. 3); this rate is considered as the highest in
Egypt. Significant intensities of rainfall are
recorded during some years in the neighborhood
of 500 mm/y. The precipitation is not used
efficiently in Sinai. Most of the water goes to the
sea, in some cases causing disaster on its way
there. In any event the precipitation in Sinai is
not counted as a water resource, despite the fact
that the future strategy of the Ministry of Water
Resources and Irrigation is based on the utiliza-
tion of this water through the construction of
some dams in order to accumulate water.

2.2. Underground water

Underground water (Figs. 4 and 5) is divided
into two kinds: brackish and low salinity.
2.2.1. Brackish water
The brackish water supply has a salinity up to
20,000 ppm. The water delivered from the wells
goes directly to agriculture if it is of low salinity.
The rest is desalinated by reverse osmosis (RO)
or electrodialysis (ED). Table 1 shows the
number of wells and salinity. Table 2 shows the
desalination units using brackish water.
The capacity of the brackish water desali-
nation units is low since it is basically for small
Fig. 5. Location of wells and springs in Sinai.
agglomeration except at El-Arish. These small
units produce water for domestic use.
2.2.2. Low salinity water (300–700 ppm)
This water is used in domestic purposes and
agriculture. This resource is concentrated only in
the El-Qaa Plain. In the area of El-Tor City and
Saint Catherine, there are 26 wells with a total
capacity of 25,000 m3/d. The population of these
regions is 22,000 inhabitants. The water is more
than the requirements for this population,
76 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81

Table 1
Brackish water resources

City Number of wells Approximate depth, m Capacity, m3/d Salinity

El-Arish 50 40–-60 52,000 3000–5500

El-Hasana 12 12–1000 6,250 1800–5000
Nakhl 7 17–1200 3,600 1800–3000
El-Quseima Spring — 1,440 1200
Sheikh Zuwayid 25 30–80 5,000 1200–4000
Rafah 35 35–90 10,000 2700–3000

Table 2 Table 3
Desalinated brackish water Nile water supply to the Sinai

City No. of Capacity, Process City Capacity, m3/d

units m3/d
Rumana 5,000
El-Arish 7 2800 ED Bir al-Abd 10,000
El-Hasana 1 300 ED El-Arish 20,000
Nakhl 2 200 RO Sheikh Zuwayid 5,000
El-Kuntilla 1 150 RO Rafah 5,000
Abu Aweigila 1 100 RO Total supply 45,000

and a part of it is transported to the neighboring

areas as Sharm El-Sheikh and Abu Rudeis. Also, Port Said
Rafah
Sheikh Zuwayid
this area is an agriculture area due to the presence El-Arish

of these wells. Bir El-Abd El-Salam Canal

Ismailia Gifgafa

2.3. Potable water transported by pipeline

The first pipeline was inaugurated 10 years Suez

ago to El-Arish (Fig. 6), with a 158 km length and

Ras Sudr
700 mm diameter. The same pipeline continues to Asal

Sheikh Zuwayid and Rafah. The supply is given

in Table 3. Abu Zenima
Abu Rudeis
h
Gu

qaba
lf o
fS

2.3.1. Future projects

of A
ue
z

Gulf

There is a new 3-year project to supply water

to Gifgafa (middle of Sinai) by a pipeline with a
length of 182 km and a total capacity of
60,000 m3/d (Fig. 6). It is still in the planning Fig. 6. Water transportation to Sinai by pipelines.
 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81 77

Table 4
Governmental desalination units

Place Taba Taba Nuweiba Dahab Sharm Sharm Nuweiba

El-Sheikh El-Sheikh

System ROa MVCb EDc RO VVCd RO MEDe

Start date 1986 1996 1985 1995 1996 1998 1999
Total area, m2 50,000 42,000 23,600 30,000 30,000 30,000
Capacity, m3/d 600 2,000 300 500 500 4,000 2,000
Feed water salinity, ppm 48,000 48,000 2,400 44,000 44,000 44,000 45,000
Product salinity, ppm 450 30 500 500 30 500 50
Power consumption, kW/m3 13.5 9 4.3 8.5 9 6.5
Total cost/m3, in LE 6.21 6.64 2.78 7.51 4.75 6.34 NA
a
Reverse osmosis, bMechanical vapor compression, cElectrodialysis
d
Thermal vapor compression, eMultiple effect desalination

Table 5
Private-sector-owned units

Location Owner Technology Capacity, m3/d Salinity Product Selling price,

salinity LE/m3

Taba Golden Coast RO 750 40,000 350 8

Maleh Company RO 4000 35,000 400 7.5
Nuweiba Helnan RO 240 44,000 400 8
Hilton RO 300 44,000 400 8
Sharm Pyramiza RO 2000 44,000 400 9
El-Sheikh Ramo RO 1000 44,000 400 9
Metito RO 500 44,000 400 9
Raga RO 2000 44,000 400 8
Southern Water Co. RO 7000 44,000 400 11
Montazah RO 2500 44,000 500
Residence RO 500 44,000 600
Euro Palace RO 500 44,000 400
Meridien RO 500 44,000 400
Aqua Marina RO 2000 44,000 400
Moevenpick RO 1000 44,000 400
Marriott RO 500 44,000 350
Dahab Sheikh Zayed RO 2500 44,000 400
Bacha Coast RO 500 44,000 400
Ghazala RO 500 44,000 400
Helnan RO 800 44,000 400
Pullman RO 500 44,000 400
$1 = 3.4 LE.
78 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81
stage for the future. The cost of this pipeline will
be high particularly if it is to be extended to the
Gulf of Aqaba. The cost will be certainly higher
than desalination units.
2.4. Desalinated water
Most of the Gulf of Aqaba region uses
desalination to respond to water demand
requirements. There are two categories of
desalination units: first are government-owned
units; second is the private-sector-owned units.
Table 4 presents the government-owned units
and the technology used. The total amount of
desalinated water is 9900 m3/d or 3.6 Mm3/y.
Table 5 presents the private-sector-owned units.
In fact, the major supply of desalinated water is
from the private sector. The total capacity of
private sector production is 30,090 m3/d or
11 Mm3/y distributed on 21 production plants
owned mainly by hotels.
3. Water use
The water use in Sinai is classified as follows:
3.1. Agriculture
The water for agriculture in Sinai is mainly
supplied from precipitation. The agriculture is
seasonal: 251,000 feddans (1 hectare = 2.38
feddans). It has no real impact on the national
economy. The new plan for land reclamation is
based on the El-Salam canal (Fig. 6). This project
pretends to reclaim 0.7 millions feddans in Sinai.
The required irrigation water is 4 billion m3/y.
Half of this water will come from the reuse of
agriculture drains. As seen in the figure, the canal
is planned to go to El-Arish City.
3.2. Domestic
The density of population in Sinai is very low.
The supply of water for domestic use comes from
the Nile water transported by pipeline. All North
Sinai relys on Nile water treated at the Port Said
water treatment plant. The discharge of the
pipeline is 45,000 m3/d. It satisfies all the needs
for the inhabitants in North Sinai cities and
villages. In South Sinai the coastal area of the
Suez Gulf relys on Nile water transported by
pipeline at a discharge of 17,500 m3/d. The city
of El-Tor, the capital of South Sinai, relys on
groundwater. The coastal area of the Gulf of
Aqaba relys on desalination.
3.3. Tourism
Tourism activities are supplied mainly by
desalinated water. The water consumption for
tourism is as high as 500 l/d per bed. The
expansion of tourism is based on desalination.
3.4. Recreational
Recreational areas are irrigated by treated
sewage water. A private sector company is in
charge of treating the sewage and the selling of
the treated water.
4. Scenarios
Based on available information and forecast-
ing for the future, the expected major activities in
the Sinai will be (1) agriculture and (2) tourism.
Agricultural activities will be covered by the
El-Salam canal; it is worthwhile to develop any
real agricultural activities away from El-Salam
canal.
For the development of the Gulf of Aqaba
coastal zone, besides desalination there is a
future project to erect a pipeline to transport
water to the Gulf of Aqaba. This project suffers
from two main disadvantages:
• The high cost of installation, added to the
running cost, is approximately 4 LE/m3.
• Egypt suffers from water insufficiency
 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81
problems; water is recycled in order to meet
the ever-increasing demand. This pipeline will
increase the demand that is satisfied with
difficulties.
According to these disadvantages, the scenario
for development of the Gulf of Aqaba region
must be based on seawater desalination to satisfy
all demands — tourism or domestic.
Legislation is required in order to encourage
private sector participation in the field of water
production by desalination and reuse of treated
sewage water. An incentive as tax exemption for
investment in this sector is required. Only two
companies are active in this field with no other
competitors. The competition will bring the price
down.
4.1. Importance of desalination in order to
respond to water shortage problems
The data obtained from the governmental
units are shown in Table 4, which enables
economic analysis. As a general rule, the
dominating technology is RO. The private sector
uses only this technology. The Sharm El-Sheikh
vapor compression unit gives low total cost per
cubic meter because part of the funds used in the
erection of the plant is a donation from abroad.
Thus, this figure cannot be considered since the
capital cost is not accurate. But in general, the
cost of the water produced by RO and vapor
compression are similar at LE 6.2–6.34 for RO
and 6.64 for vapor compression. The difference
does not justify the use of one technology or the
other.
Detailed investigation and site visits reveal
that RO technology expenses are elevated
because of the intake in most cases. An example
is the Sharm El-Sheikh plant where the beach
wells were not operated, as they should be. An
open intake was designed to compensate for the
lake of feed water.
The international tender now for RO units is
79
as low as less than US $1, which is equivalent to
LE 3.4, approximately half of the actual
operating costs in Sinai. That is why the new unit
will be RO and the private sector understands
these results.
The advantage of RO is that its maintenance
work is less sophisticated than vapor com-
pression. The two units of vapor compression
suffer from maintenance problems and deliver
less than the nominal capacity. Other advantages
of RO units are their reliability and compactness
in size. This is important for the tourist area
where the surface area is limited.
4.2. Water requirements by the year 2010
Variation in water requirements under the
alternative development strategies depends
primarily on the area under consideration and the
scenario for the development. The primary
activity in this region is tourism. Three scenarios
in this region can be expected for the
development of tourism. The actual demand for
the coming 3 years is a 35% increment, which
corresponds to a yearly increment rate of 11%.
• High scenario (actual) 11%
• Moderate scenario 8%
• Low scenario 5%
The actual scenario is the high scenario. There
was a sudden increment this year for the demand
of hotel licenses. Most of them are located on the
Taba–Nuweiba coast. The rate will decrease
because there are no more places available in this
area. It is completely booked. The expected areas
for construction are Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh.
4.3. Market potential
The global market potential for the Gulf of
Aqaba area is 65 hotels for the period of two to
three years. This is the number of licenses
demanded to the governorate. The distribution is
given in Table 6.
80 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81

Table 6
Number of licenses for hotel construction to the year
2003

Location No. of licenses

Nuweiba 3
Nuweiba–Dahab 2
Dahab 6
Dahab–sharm El-Sheikh 9
Sharm El-Sheikh 18
Taba 2 Fig. 7. Scenarios for water requirements (×106 m3/y) for
Taba–Nuweiba 25 the Nuweiba subregion.
Total 65

The expected number of beds is about 65 × 500,

assuming each hotel has 500 beds.
The total expected growth in water market
demand = 65 × 500 × 0.54 = 17,550 m3/d, which
represents an increment of 33.75% of actual
capacity, distributed over 3 years at 11% per
year. This is considered as the high scenario of
demand increment. This study has been done
using the GIS tool. The analysis of shortage
according to the region was done using three Fig. 8. Scenarios for water requirements (×106 m3/y) for
scenarios: high 11%, moderate 8% and low 5%. the Dahab subregion.
The results are shown in Figs. 7–9 for the
Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh sub-
regions, respectively. The calculation was done
up to the year 2010. The only way to respond to
this shortage is the desalination of seawater.

5. Project identification and market potential

for desalination systems
The coast from Taba to Sharm-El-Sheikh is
230 km. It can be divided into three regions:
Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El- Sheikh. These Fig. 9. Scenarios for water requirements (106 m3/y) for
divisions are made according to the available the Sharm El-Sheikh subregion.
data.
The development of this area is important to
the national economy. The advantage of this area There is no particular season. The construction of
is that it is full of visitors throughout the year. hotels and resorts continues at an increasing rate.
 M. Abou Rayan et al. / Desalination 136 (2001) 73–81 81

Table 7 The assumptions made to estimate the water

Assumptions of water requirements for tourism
Type of location Requirements Actual water
per visitor, requirements,
l/d l/da
demands of tourism are detailed in Table 7, based
on a requirement of 400 l/d per visitor in a hotel,
and 15 l for each visitor at restaurants, rest stops,
beach resorts and national parks.

Hotel 400 400 ×no. of

beds × 1.7
× 0.8
Restaurant and rest 15 15 × no. of
stops visitors
Beach resorts and 15 15 × no. of
national parks visitors
a
This figure is used in order to calculate the total water
requirement for visitors/day taking into consideration all
side activities: recreational, gardens, swimming pools and
service personnel.
Cities like Sharm-El-Sheikh have no more places
for new construction.
Construction now is outside the city limits. At
the beginning, the state-owned water production
units were supplying water to the few hotels, but
with the increasing number of hotels and resorts
the supply of water became the responsibility of
each resort. An estimated global potential for the
year 2000 is 15,000 m3/d based on the actual
demand of the resorts in construction. This
situation has motivated the private sector to
invest.
There are two private sector companies in
Sharm-El-Sheikh for water desalination. The
selling price of water is relatively high, LE 7/m3.
The latest RO technology units can provide water
at US $1, which is equivalent to LE 3.4.
Solar desalination must be seriously con-
sidered for this area. In 1982 the potential for
desalinated water was 625 m3/d. Now it is
51,690 m3/d.
6. Conclusions
The desalination option is the most appro-
priate in order to respond to the water shortage
problems in South Sinai. Based on the present
study, RO is the appropriate technology for the
development of the Sinai and Gulf of Aqaba
region. Solar energy can be used in order to
power these units using photovoltaic units instead
of diesel generators where diesel is used. The
photovoltaic panels can be installed on the
neighboring mountains.
The area of the Gulf of Aqaba is expected to
have a boom in tourism. The estimated market
potential in only the south Taba area is
20,000 m3/d for over 40 hotels and tourist resorts
under construction.
References
[1] D. Assimacopoulos, Estimating the cost of water
produced by RES powered desalination systems,
Proc., Mediterranean Conference on Renewable
Energy Sources for Water Production, Santorini,
Greece, 2000.
[2] M.A. Rayan and B. Djebedjian, Egypt’s water
demand, supply and management policies, presented
at the workshop and training course, Mediterranean
Cooperation for Water Desalination Policies in Per-
spective of Sustainable Development, Paris, 2000.
[3] M.A. Rayan and I. Khaled, Desalination option
within the integrated water resources management for
Sinai, Egypt, Proc., Mediterranean Conference on
Renewable Energy Sources for Water Production,
Santorini, Greece, 2000.

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