Drought, evaporation, and subtle tilts in the Earth’s axis could all cause Lake Victoria, the Nile’s primary source of water after a rainfall, to dry up.
Given the bleak scenarios that lie ahead, governments have rushed to seize its flow. But according to experts, dams simply hasten the impending calamity.
Sea-lost land
The promontories of Damietta and Rosetta that once protruded into the Mediterranean in northern Egypt are no longer there at the mouth of the Nile.
Water and sand have partially covered the concrete barriers that were meant to keep them safe.
The Mediterranean, which grew by about 15 centimeters (six inches) over the past century as a result of climate change, was unable to keep back the sea, which ate three kilometers into the Nile Delta between 1968 and 2009.
Salinized to death
The thriving farming village of Kafr El-Dawar, located fifteen kilometers inland, appears to be still safe.
Large areas of land have already absorbed salt from the Mediterranean, killing and weakening plants. Farmers claim that the flavor of their produce has changed.
They need to pump extra fresh water from the Nile onto the soil to make up for the soil’s salinization.
Power outages
Only 8% of Egypt’s total land area, or 104 million people, is occupied by people who live along the river.
Similar circumstances exist in neighboring Sudan, where the Nile provides two-thirds of the country’s water and half of its 45 million residents live along its banks.
Both nations’ populations will have doubled by 2050, and the temperature will be two to three degrees higher.
Threat from source
It has already been hotter and hotter during the past five to ten years, as evidenced by an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts, heavy rainfall and flooding, and heat waves.
In fact, research by British and American scientists based on geological data from the last 100,000 years indicates that Lake Victoria may completely evaporate within the next 500 years.
Giant dams
Even though Ethiopia has one of the greatest growth rates in Africa, more than half of its 110 million residents are forced to live without power.
Addis Abeba is prepared to sever ties with its neighbors if necessary in order to complete the GERD mega-dam project on the Nile, which it is expecting will fix the problem.
Silt disappearing But after observing how the Aswan dam has decreased the flow of silt, farmers are concerned about losing access to this priceless natural fertilizer.
Driven by hunger
Rainstorms that hit the nation every year killed 150 people this summer and completely destroyed towns. However, due to a lack of a system to store and recycle rainwater, the deluges are of no assistance to the country’s agriculture.
Despite Sudan long being a major player in the global markets for peanuts, cotton, and gum arabic, famine now poses a threat to a third of its population.
News Mania Desk
