Sudan asks Egypt to rejoin Nile Basin body
Sudan on Thursday appealed for Egypt to resume full participation in a 10-nation Nile River forum, four years after Cairo withdrew over fears for its access to the crucial water source.
Environmental news and related issues
Egypt
Ethiopia starts Blue Nile diversion
Ethiopia has begun diverting the Blue Nile as part of a giant dam project, officials said on Wednesday, prompting talks in Cairo between downstream states Sudan and Egypt.
Wikipedia to be free on mobiles in Africa, Middle East
Millions of people in Africa and the Middle East will be able to benefit from free, unlimited access to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia through their mobile phone, starting later this year
Looting in Egypt damages key seed collections
Priceless genetic material from desert environments may have been irretrievably lost during the recent Egyptian protests, as looters targeted the Desert Research Centre (DRC) in Cairo and the Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank (EDGB) in North Sinai, causing [...]
Pharaonic Palm at Risk of Extinction, Again
Environmentalists have called for more efforts to protect the argun palm, a rare desert tree prized by the ancient Egyptians that is on the verge of extinction.
Black cloud season sees rise in health problems
Every year a noxious black smog hangs over Egypt as the seasonal burning of rice straw by farmers begins, and with it comes a surge in allergic reactions and lung infections.
Growing protests over water shortages
Tens of thousands of people in Egypt - Africa’s second most populous country - have taken to the streets in recent months to protest against water shortages, a fact which goes some way to explaining the government’s reluctance to relinquish its current [...]
Red Sea oil spill continuing
Environmental activists say an oil spill off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea, which has left turtles and sea birds covered in oil, is continuing even though the government says it has been contained.
Tar sands oil extraction spreading rapidly, report warns
Friends of the Earth reports says extraction threatens environment as well as vulnerable communities
Salt-Friendly Plant Considered Promising Harvest Crop in the Middle East
A halophyte (salt-tolerant) plant known as salicornia could be the key to advancing agriculture production as well as renewal energy resources and water conservation, reports IPS News.
EGYPT: Pig-cull induced street rubbish a “national scandal”
The Egyptian government’s decision to cull all of the country’s 300,000 pigs in May 2009 is increasingly being viewed by experts and officials as a gross mistake as piles of organic waste the pigs once ate accumulate in Cairo’s streets, posing serious [...]
Egypt oasis risks becoming mirage
Four days into the journey his men had run out of water. By the time they eventually stumbled across the oasis it must have appeared - as it still does - like a mirage out of the sand. Today Siwa is a nine-hour drive from Cairo, across some of the most [...]
Measuring the Damage of our ‘Water Footprint’
A Dutch hydro engineer has come up with a "water footprint." At a conference in Sweden, he and other participants discussed water waste, supermarkets filled with fruits and vegetables produced in some of the world's most arid regions and ways we can stop [...]
Fertilizing the desert
The agricultural engineer, Philippe Ouaki Di Giorno developed the “Polyter” in the 1990s It is a small granule which acts as a water reservoir and vegetal food supply and it facilitates the growth of plant and trees « on any