Recommendation Report for Solutions to Water Shortage in Egppt

Module Code: PM511

Group: Group Jan. D

Module Title: Skills for Study

Assessment Title: Report

Assignment Title: Write a report that compares two or three different ways to supply water in Egypt. At the end of the report, make a recommendation of the best method of water provision.

Tutor’s Name: Lydia Cholij

Student ID Number: 105929

Date of Submission:28/2/2019

Word count of the essay:1645

Recommendation Report for Solutions to Water Shortage in Egppt

1. Introduction

Egypt has a desert climate, it is extremely dry and receives almost no rainfall. The whole country depends on the Nile for its water supply. But the heavy metal content of Nile water exceeds the standard, does not meet water quality standards. (Abdel-Satar, Ali and Goher, 2017)The aim of this report is to discuss the water shortage problem in Egypt and to suggest three different water supply methods. It will compare them to find the best and most efficient options. Finally, the report will make recommendations for the best solution. The three methods suggested are 1) Solar distillation 2) Deep groundwater extraction 3) Absorption method to solve the Nile heavy metal phenomenon. In this report, perspectives of cost, environment pollution, and sustainable development will be analyzed in order to decide on the recommendation.

2. Background

2.1 Wealth (GDP) and poverty of the country

Egypt is one of the least developing countries in the world. According to Tradingeconomics.com (2019), the GDP growth rate in Egypt averaged 5.50 percent. (see Figure 1) (Tradingeconomics.com, 2019)

[pic 1] Figure 1. the GDP in Egypt from2009 to 2017 (Tradingeconomics.com, 2019)

2.2 Geographical location, climate, and natural environment

Egypt is located in the northeastern part of Africa between longitudes 258 and 348 E and latitudes 228 and 328 N (see Figure 2.) Alexandria in northern Egypt is classified as arid, and Aswan in the south as extremely arid. The main climatic conditions of Alexandria, Giza, and Aswan are shown in Table 1. (Kotb et al., 2000) Egypt's borders, including the Sinai Peninsula, are dominated by desert plateaus, but the east is cut by the Nile valley.

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Figure 2.Map of Egypt (Kotb et al., 2000)

Table 1.Mean monthly climatological data in Egypt (Kotb et al., 2000)

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2.3 Water shortage and current methods of water provision

“The mean effective rainfall over the entire country is near zero since precipitation is nil. Daily evaporation ranges from 1.5 to 8.5 mm with mean daily reference evapotranspiration from ca. 2.0 to 10.0 mm. ”(Kotb et al., 2000)The deterioration of the water quality of the Nile is a major problem in Egypt. Abdel-Satar, Ali, Goher (2017) established 24 water quality monitoring points on the Nile River, covering 925 km along the Nile River, as can be seen in Figure 3. According to the survey, the water of the Nile is heavily polluted by metals are shown in Table 2. At present, the water supply in Egypt mainly relies on the infiltration (RO) method to desalinate seawater and Nile water supply. (El-sadek, 2010)

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Figure 3.Map of sampling sites at Nile River (Abdel-Satar, Ali and Goher, 2017)

Table 2. The spatial distribution of heavy metals compares with different standards and HPI values for the Nile water (Abdel-Satar, Ali and Goher, 2017)

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3. Presentation of options

3.1 Option 1: Solar distillation

Egypt has used water desalination methods to obtain water resources many years ago. However, the desalination proposed in the report has been improved on the original method, using a solar desalination method successfully operated by Nashar and Ali over the first 18 years of June 2002. A simplified diagram of a solar distillation unit is shown in Figure 4. (Ranjan and Kaushik, 2013) The method studies the principle of solar distillation (MED), which uses a series of photovoltaic panels to generate the electricity needed to pump seawater to the surface and then pressurize it through a special membrane that removes most of the dissolved salt. (Ranjan and Kaushik, 2013) Compared with the previous desalination method in Egypt, the new method replaces the use of fuel by the rational use of solar energy. Resolving water shortages with domestic energy sources that do not generate air pollution or cause global climate change solves water shortages and reduces costs.

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Fig 4. A simplified diagram of the Solar Desalination Plant (Ranjan and Kaushik, 2013)

3.2 Option 2: Deep groundwater extraction

Almost all of the available conventional water resources, represented by a small amount of annual precipitation in Egypt, renewable groundwater and Nile water have been depleted. (Omar and Moussa, 2016)However, Nubian deep groundwater is a new source of water. In the past, the establishment of groundwater flow models was very difficult due to the underdevelopment of science and technology. Now with the development of science and technology, it can be determined that the main part of the famous Nubian aquifer system in Eastern Sahara is located in the southwestern part of the Dakhla Basin in southwestern Egypt, together with the Kufra Basin in Libya (see Figure 5). (A. et al., 2002) Thus can use water pumps to carry on the exploitation to the deep groundwater. Solar water pumps can be used to replace deep water Nubia by traditional energy pumps. The energy generated by photovoltaic cells is mainly dependent on solar radiation, and its performance is comparable to that of conventional pumps, but its efficiency is much higher than that of conventional power pumps. (Korpale, Kokate, and Deshmukh, 2016)Therefore, solar pumping technology is an important technology to save water and electricity.

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Fig 5. Nubian deep groundwater (A. et al., 2002)

3.2 Option 2: Adsorption method to solve the Nile heavy metal phenomenon

The river Nile is unusable because of excessive levels of heavy metals from untreated sewage and agricultural wastewater. (Abdelmoaty, 2015) therefore, it is very important to remove heavy metals from the Nile water. The research results of Hegazi(2013) showed that low-cost adsorbent could effectively remove heavy metals with a concentration range of 20-60 mg/l. The effect of adsorbent dosage on the removal of Iron(Fe), lead(Pb), cadmium(Cd), copper (Cu)and nickel(Ni) ions from rice husk and fly ash at a different adsorbent dosage of 20mg /l to 60mg /l are shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7. If all wastewater is treated with rice husks and fly ash before it is discharged, the excessive heavy metal content in the Nile water will be effectively alleviated.

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