DETERMINANTS OF WASTAGE OF WATER AND EFFICIENCY OF TRANSFER, DELIVERY IN EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE

Abstract

Egypt Depends on the River Nile as a major source of water, provide them with some 76.3% of their water needs, while available from other sources does not exceed 23.7% of these resources, agriculture sector is the main consumer of water as it consumes about 85.9% of the total actual consumption of water in 2009, so irrigation water is a strategic element in agriculture and the basis for agricultural expansion, however, that Egypt is one of the world's most wasteful water use, efficiency is the transfer and distribution of water not exceeding 70%. Therefore, the current search targeting estimate water losses in the agricultural sector in Egypt at the field, Entrances to the canals and Aswan, as well as estimate the efficiency of transfer and delivery of irrigation water at the level of regions of the Republic. With regard to the efficient delivery of water of the Republic and the percentage of losses for each region for the year 2009, showing low efficiency of delivery of irrigation water at the level of regions of the Republic, where an average of about 70%, reached the lowest in the regions of Lower Egypt, where estimated at 64.1%, followed by Egypt Central to reach the efficiency of delivery water by about 73.3%, followed by the area of Upper Egypt to reach the efficiency of delivery of water by about 90% of the total amount of water available for irrigation at Aswan, The total losses of connectivity from Aswan to the field about 19 billion m³, They need to exchange about 63.5 billion m³ when Aswan to irrigate the total cropped area at the field level of about 44.5 billion m³ at the level of the three regions of the Republic, while the need to irrigate the territory of Lower Egypt, about 25.9 billion m³ at the field level, while the need to exchange about 40.4 billion m³ at Aswan, therefore represents the losses of water to this region about 76.3% of the total water losses at the level of the Republic. Needed to irrigate land area of Middle Egypt about 9.6 billion m³ at the field level, while the necessary exchange of about 13.1 billion m³ at Aswan, this represents the water losses of any losses of connectivity in this region about 18.4% of the total water losses at the level of the Republic, Upper Egypt region, it is necessary to irrigate lands of this region about 9 billion m³ at the field level, while the need to exchange about 10 billion m³ at Aswan, nd therefore represents the losses of connectivity in this region was about 5.3% of the total losses of connectivity on the level of the Republic, which refers to the low efficiency of water delivery at the level of the republic and then the high rate of wastage.