Renovation of Matruh Province’s and Northern coast’s valleys by many Rain Harvesting projects.
ACSAD and the Desert Research Center are on an inspection tour for the places of project implementation.
Dr Obaid:” We are going to build 12 dams in the Province’s valleys to cultivate pastoral crops to serve the Bedouins and enable them to modify with climate changes.”
The Arab Center’s Director-General for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands ACSAD and the accompanying delegation, which consists of Dr Abdullah Zaghloul, the director of the Desert Research Center, Dr Ayham Al-homsi, the Manager of Economic Department in ACSAD, and the head of Sustainable Development Centre, Eng Mahmoud Al-Ameer, have checked the locations of twelve dams constructions for rain harvesting in Matruh Province. One of which was the first rock-fill dam of Gabion-system to reduce the water access to the Mediterranean sea, use it in the fed agriculture in the area, and serve the Matruh’s Bedouins.
The Director-General of the Arab Center ACSAD, Dr Obaid, said that the priorities of the joint projects in the Arab Republic of Egypt were to serve the agriculture development in the bedouins’ areas in Matruh. The new model of those twelve dams contributes to storing adequate rainfall amounts to serve our people in the neighbour region to take advantage of it in the fed agriculture and meet the needs to breeding goats and sheep that achieve Bedouins settlement.
Dr Obaid has pointed out that these projects come within the Egyptian government plan to upgrade Matruh and Northern Coast’s areas by expanding agriculture tolerant to water scarcity like “Olive and Fig” and rangelands development.
His Excellency has added that the new system to construct these dams in the rainfall areas in Matruh is the least cost and highest efficiency in comparison with the concrete dams and enable to complete protection process to these dams by Alluvium around the dam, and benefit from the sludge in improving soil traits and prevent from sliding to the sea wasting it without any benefit in rain harvesting. He has also pointed out that ACSAD implemented several development projects in Egypt by constructing 810 water harvesting constructions with a total capacity of 170 thousand cubic meters of drinkable water.
Dr Obaid has explained that a project of water harvesting and good agriculture practices has been implemented in Matruh in cooperation with the Desert Research Centre and FAO Organization to construct 181 wells with a total capacity of 18100 cubic meters of drinkable water. Furthermore, to build 125 typical guidance fields for fig and olive cultivations and 25 typical farms, each includes a drip irrigation network and a well. He has also pointed out that these projects limit the adverse impacts of climate change and achieve the Egyptian government goals in sustainable development.
Dr Obaid has also indicated that the Arab Center “ACSAD” is implementing, in cooperation with the Sustainable Development Centre for Matruh’s resources belonging to the Desert Research Centre, “The Integral Management for the Rainfall Areas” project through several activities in the field of water harvesting, soil maintenance, limiting land degradation, and restoring rangelands by constructing “Gabions” Dams for the first time in Matruh Province with a length of one km in Al-Zarka valley, which is considered to be alternative to the concrete dams in valleys in a less expensive and more resilient than those concrete dams. This comes within the strategic plan of the Egyptian government, following its developmental dimension.
Dr Obaid also pointed out that 12 dams of “Gawabi” will be implemented to harvest water in a total storage capacity of 1500 cubic metres and construct 100 rock-fill dams in ten pastoral units in a total capacity of 2000 cubic meters. In addition to conducting scientific studies for Al-Zarka valley include hydrological study, and another one on the plant coverage, and the lands of the valley alongside a study to assess the eroded soil amounts annually.
His Excellency has clarified that implementing the projects of constructing these dams in Matruh come within the cooperation plan with the sustainable development centre belonging to Desert Research Centre to benefitting from the rainfall the Province has and upgrade the water resources efficiency in the area.
Dr Obaid has emphasized the importance of the cooperation between ACSAD and Desert Research Centre in the Republic of Egypt, represented by the Sustainable Development Centre for Matruh’s resources to support the joint action between them in many activities and studies in the agriculture field. He has confirmed the Arab Centre’s role as a house of experience for the Arab region to address the limitation of water resources in the area it suffers from in the light of the drought and adverse impacts of climate changes, indicating that this depends on implementing several dams in the various valleys of Matruh’s Province for the Bedouin’s benefit. He has explained that the scientific-technical cooperation between the two sides is to make the optimal use of the modern techniques in implementing the integral management project for the rainfall area of Matruh with what would contribute to achieving the settlement and raise the land and water efficiency.
In a related matter, Dr Abdullah Zaghloul and Eng Mahmoud Al Ameer have emphasized the importance of cooperation with ACSAD to benefit from its experiences and outstanding experts in the water resources areas, combat desertification, and develop rangelands due to their vast expertise in implementing such projects constructed in the area.
