ROSETTA, Egypt (AP) — Sayed Abuel-Ezz has already noticed his crops withering away because of seawater. As the Nile Delta farmer walks among his mango trees on his land not far from the Mediterranean Sea, he fears this could happen in spite of spending tens of thousands of dollars to save it.
“If it’s going up, the trees will die,” Abuel-Ezz said as he looked out to sea.
Here, the effect of the weather update has long been evident to farmers, in the salt that corrodes the roots and hardens their fields, leaving them barren. They pay a fortune to bring truckloads of dirt to test them. Raise their crops above the salt that is deposited in the soil through emerging sea levels. But they say it’s getting worse and worse.
Bus drivers can also see the changes, as the sea flows more and more smoothly over the land. Today, each and every winter, parts of the major foreign highway that runs along Egypt’s coast are flooded, drivers on the highway say.
Located on Egypt’s northern coast in the Mediterranean, the Nile Delta is one of the world’s 3 most critical points affected by climate change, adding to sea level rise, according to a 2007 report by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. .
With Egypt hosting the UN’s COP27 global climate summit this month, the country’s leaders said the plight of the delta, known for millennia for its fertile soil, is top of their concerns. heating
The delta covers approximately 240 square kilometers (93 square miles), starting just north of the capital, Cairo, where the Nile develops. At one time, the region has been the breadbasket of empires.
It is densely populated, home to about 40 percent of Egypt’s other 104 million people and accounts for part of the country’s economy, according to the U. N. food agency. Farms and fishing along the two arms of the Nile, Rosetta in the west and Damietta in the east, feed the country and supply products for export.
All of this is threatened by climate change and emerging seas. A quarter of the delta is at or below sea level. – case scenarios of the UN-backed panel – will move the sea coast inland several kilometers, submerging giant spaces and making it more barren with salt. This is according to a recent report through a foreign organization of scientists overseen by the Cyprus Climate and Climate Institute. Atmosphere Research Center and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
“This would involve serious demanding situations for coastal infrastructure and agriculture, and could lead to salinization of coastal aquifers, adding the densely populated and cultivated Nile Delta,” said George Zittis, co-author of the report.
The situation considered maximum maximum probably through the panel is that the sea level will rise from 0. 3 to 0. 6 meters until 2100. This will still make thousands of acres unsuitable for agriculture or housing.
The Associated Press spoke to more than 3 dozen farmers, fishermen and other citizens from various villages and along the Mediterranean coast across the delta.
For generations, they said they have been feeling the effects of climate change for years, namely emerging sea levels. They saw more coastal erosion and salt-contaminated groundwater. New water back tension has decreased.
Saltwater intrusion is the most complicated risk to the delta, said Mohamed Abdel Monem, senior adviser on land and climate replacement at the U. N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
“This means less productivity and, in many cases, crop deaths and food insecurity,” he said.
Hamdy Salah, a 26-year-old farmer who lives in the western delta of the city of Rosetta, says planting practices have drastically replaced. In the past, they grew a variety: tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins and other vegetables. Now they grow basically mangoes and citrus fruits, which are less vulnerable to salt.
“We tried crops like apples, but the salt water also killed their roots,” he said.
Abuel-Ezz’s circle of relatives has been farming in Rosetta for generations, and he and his two brothers grow two five-acre mango and citrus farms.
Ten years ago, they built their farmland, a 1-meter (3. 3-foot) box and the 2-meter (6. 6-foot) moment, to combat brackish water on their farms. It charged them about 2 million pounds ($101,700) at today’s price, said Sayed’s brother, Saber Abuel-Ezz.
The elevation, along with a government-built runoff formula for salt in the soil, gave them time.
“However, there is no alternative,” said Sayed, a 36-year-old father of two.
In addition to bringing tons of soil, many grow plants in raised beds and use whatever herbal fertilizer or chemicals they can to counteract salinity.
Without these measures, the earth becomes temporarily desolate. Across the river from the town of Rosetta, patches of dry salt canopythe former farmland outside the town of Mutubas.
One afternoon in September, a dozen farmers sat near a device pumping water from an irrigation canal to raised beds on a mango farm in Mutubas. The trees have just bloomed, next year may be their first harvest.
Ouf el-Zoughthrough, one of the farmers, said it was the third time he had tried to grow mangoes. Previous attempts were thwarted by salt.
“You see the tree die before your eyes,” the 47-year-old farmer said, recalling that he had to pluck the pods one by one. Its fields are less than 3 kilometers (1. 8 miles) from the Mediterranean.
This time, he hopes that newly cultivated farmland and a government-created runoff formula will survive, in addition to valuable chemical fertilizers. He doesn’t know what he will do if the harvest fails again. He fears that without further ado, thousands of other people may simply abandon their farms.
The domain has been exposed to the nearby sea, but elders say salinity was controlled through the Nile’s new water and sediment supplies. Even after the structure of the Aswan High Dam, more than 50 years ago, ended seasonal flooding, new water still reached the fields through the canals. But even that has declined, as the government has rationed the use of agricultural water, to accommodate the country’s developing population. There is not enough left to remove the salt.
Further down the coast, on the east side of the delta, concrete barriers have been placed just outside the city of Port Said, in an effort to contain the emerging waves.
Abdel-Wahab Ramadan, a 61-year-old retired engineer, remembers spending a summer vacation on the white-sand beaches here 30 years ago. Now her grandchildren play alongside the huge waves in the shallow muddy waters.
“We are aware that this is necessary, but there are coverage strategies greater than this,” he said.
They are still only partial measures. They haven’t been enough to prevent waves from flooding waterfront restaurants and cafes in the town of Ras el-Bar in recent winters. Many now close the winter months.
“Last year we spent a week repairing the place, but unfortunately the water still flooded it,” said Abd Allah Gareib, who runs a café near the beach. It has suffered water damage in the past two years. This year, the sea has already crossed the first two breakwater lines in October.
Barriers and runoff systems are part of the government’s efforts to protect the delta from the effects of climate change.
Egypt’s former Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel-Atty, said in January that the government had installed concrete barriers along 120 kilometers (74 miles) along the Mediterranean coast to house 17 million people. The entire Mediterranean coast of Egypt stretches for 990 kilometers (615 miles). Abdel-Atty said they were also working to build a warning formula to warn of any climate change, such as emerging sea levels.
At the same time, the government seeks to end highly polluting practices, such as brick making and an ancient agricultural custom, the burning of rice straw, which engulfs the delta sky in smoke every year after harvest. .
But Egyptians say this is a small step in solving a global problem.
“Although Egypt contributes 0. 6 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, it is one of the most affected by climate change, and the agricultural sector and food production are the most affected,” FAO expert Abdel Monem said.