Project

Use of brackish groundwater in agriculture and aquaculture

Fish farming has shown tremendous growth during the last two decades in Egypt and has turned the country into a world-player in this field. Fresh water use for fish production is not allowed in Egypt (except government-owned hatcheries) and farmers use drainage water or ground water for this. Increasingly also brackish water is used for agriculture and for fish production.

Large pockets of (brackish) groundwater are available in the Oases in the Western Desert between the Nile and Libya. Oases are vulnerable and precious ecosystems and also represent an important cultural heritage, which has a large potential value in tourism. Uncontrolled farming and fish growing without restrictions on the drainage water discharge is therefore not desirable.

Adapting to the inevitable results of climate change

During the last decades, the Netherlands is also increasingly confronted with the salinity theme. Large parts of the country are below sea level and are very vulnerable for sea level rise as a result of climate change. Climate change adaptation of agriculture and other land use functions has progressed considerably in The Netherlands. The paradigm shift that is taking place deals with the change from ‘protecting against climate change’ towards ‘adapting to the inevitable results of climate change’. Through government stimulation programmes the agricultural sector is challenged to find solutions for adaptation.

Reuse of water and nutrients

The experience of Egypt (producing brackish water fish species) and of the Netherlands (developing agricultural adaptation measures) makes the combination of fish farming with agriculture using brackish water in an Integrated Agri – Aquacultural (IAA) approach a high potential for future economic cooperation activity between both countries. This integrated approach allows the reuse of water and nutrients to save on pumping costs and fertiliser input and to protect the environment (groundwater) against pollution. The Netherlands are quite advanced in knowledge and technology whereas Egypt has a strong private sector and a large potential of brackish, unpolluted groundwater.

The subject IAA has been on the agenda of the Water Mondiaal Panel since 2012 when the Panel members selected the subject ‘Use of Brackish groundwater in agriculture and aquaculture: innovative trend at the national scale’ for further elaboration. During 2013 a pre-feasibility study was implemented and the results were presented to the Panel meeting in June 14th. The panel judged the results of the feasibility study as promising in terms of opportunities for private sector involvement for both Egyptian and Dutch entrepreneurs.

Contact ir. PGM (Peter) van der Heijden

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Project information

Brackish groundwater

Status:: Completed
Start project:: Jan 1, 2013
End project:: Dec 31, 2015

Client(s):: Ministry of Economic Affairs

Partners:

DLG

Pioneer companies meet researchers & civil servants

A pre-feasibility study for initiating a pilot project in the desert (or elsewhere) was commissioned to DLG, ALTERRA, CDI and IMARES. This pre-feasibility study resulted in May 2013 in a concise report, entitled ‘Feasibility of the Use of Brackish Groundwater in Integrated Aqua-Agriculture systems in Egypt’. A number of recommendations and suggestions based on this report were made during a panel meeting.

One of the recommendations was to investigate possibilities for strategic IAA systems, and propose relevant project partners from Egypt and The Netherlands, from the Government, research organisations and the private sector. In accordance with this recommendation a mission composed of CDI and ALTERRA staffmembers and Egyptian experts examined in in March 2014 the interest in such IAA systems with brackish water in Egypt.

The mission found that several pioneering companies had already started with IAA and were interested to set-up a learning community that would share the existing experiences and plan and execute in a systematic way pilots to overcome the technical problems that were encountered. The results of this mission are described in the mission report 'Integrated Agri-Aquaculture with brackish waters in Egypt'.

A workshop was held in November 2014 under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation what the 20 private companies - of which a part already applies integration of intensive fish farming with agriculture - together and connected them to Egyptian and Dutch researchers. The concept of a learning community to further develop IAA was discussed and the basis and condition for the establishment of such a community was explored. The workshop report 'Development and Exchange of Knowledge on Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture' provides more details.