Isaiah 19:5-7 And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched, will be driven away, and will be no more.
Cairo, Egypt: The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has declared a water emergency.
“The job of an irrigation engineer in Egypt has changed. We no longer manage water flooding but manage water scarcity, and make precise plans to deal with it, so as not to harm the main interests and the citizens’ needs,” Mohammed al-Sibai, Spokesman for the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.
The total annual Nile River flow has declined 5 billion cubic meters (1.3 trillion gallons, or 6.5 billion cubic yards) compared to last year 2018.
The Egyptian government tells its citizens not to worry. The available water supply will not be affected.
“Egypt’s annual water quota will not be affected by the decline. A state of emergency means keeping all of the Water Ministry’s departments on maximum alert to periodically follow up on the water situation in the main riverbed and all canals and water channels in the governorates.”
This emergency is occurring as Egyptian water needs are increasing.
“In addition to the declining water flow, Egypt is dealing with a water gap that is widening every year. Internal needs are now estimated at 114 billion cubic meters annually, while only 59.4 billion cubic meters of running surface water is available.”
In the long run, Egyptian officials are not concerned about water. They have Lake Nasser behind the Aswan Dam.
“It’s not possible to be in real danger, as long as there is a strategic water reservoir in the Aswan Dam, and official figures indicate that the water level there is so far within the safe limits. The most important challenge is to maintain safe [levels] of water in Lake Nasser.” -Abbas Sharaqi, Water and Geology Professor at Cairo University
There is also the matter of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam construction continues on the Nile River. Construction of the dam is located in northwest Ethiopia. When finished, the GERD will be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa. As of 2019, the project is estimated to be completed in 2022. Once finished, it estimated to take 5-15 years for the reservoir to fill to capacity.
Man says, “Don’t worry. We can conserve and manage the Nile River.”
God says…
Zechariah 10:11b …And He will strike the waves in the sea, so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up…
Ezekiel 30:12 And I will dry up the Nile and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers; I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it, by the hand of foreigners; I am the LORD; I have spoken.
