Arab Republic of Egypt

Cairo University – Prof. Dr. Mohamed Fahmy Hussein

Exploring Egypt’s Countryside Potential to Combat Climatic and Environmental

Changes during the 21st Century

Proposal by

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Fahmy Mohamed Hussein

Soil and Water Depart, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University

 Exploring Egypt’s Countryside Potential to Combat Climatic and
Environmental Changes during the 21st Century

Mohamed Fahmy Hussein

Abstract

Global climate change is, at present, one of the most important issues of concern worldwide.
The evidences of the general trend toward global warming and seawater level rise are currently
accumulating and several tragic scenarios are projected for the next 50-100 years. The size of the
problem is of an international nature. However, each country should do its own homework toward the
recognition of the risks it may domestically be subjected to, and efforts it should undertake in order to
participate in the struggle against this severe menace.
Egypt would be among the three first nations (Bangladesh, Vietnam and Egypt) that would
suffer the most from the dangerous consequences of such universal crisis. The arable land of the Nile
Delta might be subjected to a great loss of about one third of its total area within 100 years in
particular in the northern governorates if one meter rise of seawater level had effectively taken place
as predicted, and the life, habitat and workplace of 8 millions of Egyptians would be directly and
ultimately menaced. The issue is of a prime national security order
The present proposal introduces a comprehensive approach for dealing with the basic
information, experimental work and social efforts that we should start right now to assume for
predicting the capacity of the population, creating its awareness and to get its involvement and
enthusiasm to combat the coming tragedy that is progressively installing its clear impacts under our
eyes everywhere.
The comprehensive set of experimental work is proposed to be carried out among three pilot
population fractions (in Lower, Middle and Upper Egypt) in order to verify the role of the urban zones
and the countryside in nationally creating the problem through the internal emission of greenhouse
gases and other pollutants that contribute to the global warming and the environmental deterioration
of our fragile natural resources. As well, a set of low-coast interventions and solutions is proposed to
encourage the rural population to actively participate into the struggle against the global warming
though intruding simple techniques and devices (such as the use of solar energy panels - instead of
fossil fuel-powered electric energy generators - to reduce domestic CO2 emission, adopting simple
devices for the storage of the excess CO2 gas in a safe solid-phase forms, and encouraging recycling
farm-wastes rather than burning them…etc). Additionally, lab and field experimental work will be
carried out in order to test the merits of the proposed solutions and to introduce other induced ideas on
the run throughout the project lifetime and for the follow-up after its termination.
Computer simulation and other computing efforts will as well be carried out at the high-end
touches of the subject (such as studying the case of salinity build-up in the northern Delta aquifer and
soils, as potentially submerged lands will undergo marine intrusion.)
On the human health grounds, an understanding of the health-hazards related to climate
change and environmental degradation in Egypt is targeted in the present proposal as the projected
approach consists, in fact, of two wings: 1) a human resources and generic parametric approach, and
2) a material-experimental work approach. The outcome of the proposed activity should be of high-
end benefit to the country and fills a wide gap that still is creating worry about the role that Egypt may
play to tackle an international crisis that it would be the first to suffer from despite the fact that the
country is not the first to generate.

1
Introduction and Background
Environmental and climate change has recently become a large-scale concern
worldwide. Scientific observations have lately given rise to believe that a major part of the
present-day climate and environmental changes and the potential environmental
deteriorations that would take place in future (during the next 50-100 years) primarily have
an anthropogenic origin which is related, among others, to the heavy combustion of fossil-
fuel, deforestation, biomass-decay, the pollutant industrial activities (e.g. Cement industry)
that all produce CO2 gas. In addition, massive livestock production, mining for fossil fuel,
large-scale rice cultivation and urban sewage and wastes all produce methane (CH4) gas.
Moreover, industrial processes and fertilization generate nitrous oxide (NO2). The emission
of the fluorinated gases, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride (SF4) generated and emitted from home appliances,
aluminum production, semiconductor industry, magnesium smelting, electrical insulations,
heavy transportation, huge urban-zones and energy supply to immense commercial buildings
are all participating to greenhouse gases (GHGs) that pollute the atmosphere and keep Earth
heat from dissipation. Despite the fact that most of the GHGs are found in minimum
concentrations in the atmosphere (compared to CO2) their global warming potential (GWP)
are, by far, much higher (from 25 to about 23000 times) than that of CO2.
The worldwide concern on climate change is rapidly uprising and the awareness is
increasing, even among the ordinary individuals in the leading industrial nations since the
global warming will have poor impacts on freshwater, ecosystems, agriculture and food,
health and low-lying coasts. However, the scientific parameters, related to the assessment of
the issue and the policymakers’ willingness to combat the phenomenon, are still much
lagging-behind, and the know-how to combat this new event is to a much less extent
developed, in particular in most of the developing and third world countries, including Egypt
that could lose about 30% of the Nile Delta arable land within 100 years though seawater
level rise. Moreover, the local and national solutions and the potential contribution to a
comprehensive fight against climate and environmental changes are neither well-outlined nor
well-defined, especially in Africa, Asia and Southern America. Meanwhile, a lot of the major
suspended questions in that field have still no complete answers since the issue is still highly
obscure. This is not only due to the multi-facetted nature of the problem (and more
importantly, to its intrinsic complexity) but also due to the lack of international/national
holistic master plans in this arena.
From a practical point of view, the solution of the problem is as well at its very
beginning worldwide. Despite the quasi-international recognition of the statement of such
global crisis, little is realistically done to step forward to stop the rapidly advancing train of
the set of events that contribute to the production of global warming and to prevent the
permanent installation of its harmful consequences and impacts. This is, generally, attributed
to the narrow-minded economic interests of the heavy high-end industrial activities world-
wide and selfish styles of life based on the society of extensive consumption in the leading
developed countries that yet prefer taking the risk of a great-scale pollution of the Earth
atmosphere, leading to excessive environmental changes and the deterioration of the natural
resources, rather than seriously dealing with the menace in a categorical way that may put an
end to the observed degradation of the environment and its soon coming tragedy.
Each country should have its own set of criteria, regulations and contribution that may
run in harmony and cooperation with the international efforts for struggling against the global
warming and environmental changes. Egypt has an advantage among the third world and
developing countries since it has a coherent national scientific staff and good national
scientific infrastructure. However, there is not yet a well-defined national masterplan in this
regard. Even among the Egyptian scientific community itself the detailed knowledge about
2
the problem and its consequences is still lacking. Questions like: what are the dimensions of
that issue on both the world-wide and the national scales, what can the country do to carry out
a national contribution in that combat, are still not widely posed and their answers are still
ambiguous.
The present proposal is intended for making a specific break-through in the direction
of the exploration of Egypt’s capacity to put its weight in this combat as a part of the
international scene and as model that is regularly followed-up in the Arab Region and Africa.
A first step in this respect is to get info, to deal with the info, to introduce a national concept
dealing with the problem and, finally, to introduce a set of proposed solutions. The rural
sector is believed not only to be the first victim of any stiff climate change and environmental
degradation but also it is the amphitheater where mush contribution of the country should be
engaged in the combat against this new problems. This is why we introduce this proposal
Moreover, a set of experimental work is included here down to test some devices and ideas
that may be locally used at low prices to fix and store some of the greenhouse gases on the
national scale.

Problem Description
Our blue planet cannot be any more ignored from a climatic and environmental point
of view. A global agreement on the definition of the coming climate and environmental
dangers and the up-rising awareness of all nations in this regard is fairly a good point.
However, the populations who are progressively becoming conscious of the climate and
environmental change issue are, in most cases, neither influencing the high-end economic and
political decision-makers nor they are involved in any massive governmental struggle against
the imposed hazard or the potential damages that would be soon produced; most of the
population are just representing the “silent majority” everywhere, even in the leading
industrial countries, in this respect. However, some technological breakthrough efforts are
coming soon (for example using electricity-powered cars or the use of hydrogen cars instead
of driving fossil-fuel cars).
The 19th century was claimed as a “chemical human-triumph era”, and the 20th century
was assumed as being the “physical human-triumph era”, whereas the 21st century is currently
conjugated with an assumed “biological human-triumph” where molecular genetics, cloning
and the genetically-modified organisms (GMO’s) are believed to, again, “change the face of
the world”.
However, each of these advocated “triumphs” had, and still has, its own “severe
catastrophic drawbacks” on the human life on the Earth and on our common terrestrial natural
resources (e.g. the pollution of the atmosphere, water and soils almost everywhere). We have
heavily introduced fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other harmful molecules for the first
time in the history of the Earth’s environment during the 20th century. Greenhouse-gases are
also significantly introduced as end-products of industry, vehicles traffic and massive
aircraft-transportation, not to mention multiple-regional military conflicts and two World
Wars during the last century, and by the end of 2nd World War the nuclear weapon was used
for the first time and the aerial thermonuclear bomb-test experimentation was also carried out
up to 1960’s when it has been finally banned through an international agreement on 1963
after already emitting some long half-life radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere. Two
decades ago, everybody talked about the ozone problem in the upper atmosphere. However,
in our everyday life, we see and we suffer from the poor air quality almost everywhere
around the corner in the streets and in the Greater Cairo Urban Zone (GCUZ) and we live
under the so-called “black cloud” since about one decade.
Up to date, no international commitment is achieved or agreed-upon on how to deal
with the global climate- and environmental change issue. However about one decade ago
3
Kyoto International Conference was held and gave a brief breakthrough that has not been
followed by any other important international effort in the same direction due to the lack of a
common political willingness world-wide in this regard.
Meanwhile and on the other hand, some observers see that the climate change issue is
a highly exaggerated one or it has been deliberately created and falsely over-estimated just
for some political and economic reasons (related to the petroleum marketplace in the 1980’s)
since the advent of Margaret Thatcher to power at 10 Dawning Street, Great Britain. For
those particular observers, the Earth at present is just undertaking a natural climate change-
cycle inscribed within a regular and natural transition era at present by the end of the
Holocene where an interglacial era is to be installed in the near future. According to those
scientists, such natural transition is spontaneous and it is going ahead through steady air-
temperature increase due to various astronomical, astrophysical, planetary and solar reasons
but not primarily due to the excessive anthropogenic activities that produce atmospheric
pollution that we may otherwise control. Nonetheless, those same particular observers
recognize that the humane activities, if any, may as well contribute to and additively
accelerate any natural climate change but in a very minor and negligible extent.
On the contrary, another group of observers (the majority) claims that the present-day
climate change problem is a real issue that can be almost uniquely attributed to anthropogenic
reasons. Regardless who is right and who is wrong (and this is another story!), we may
assume that the product in all cases is the same, with one exception saying that: “if it were the
natural cycle of our planet climate change that stands behind the environmental change we
can hardly combat nature. On the other hand, if it was attributed to a human origin, we may
combat it through closing its sources and stopping the mechanism standing behind. That is to
say, the fight tools in the two cases should be conceptually different.
Several consequences are closely related to the so-called climate and environmental
change. Damages can take place in the air we respire, in the oceans, in the cultivated lands, in
the urban zones, on the shore-lines, on the hydrographical network patterns of the drainage
basins of the great rivers and on the groundwater reservoirs as well as on our food supply and
food quality. It is time to act.
The effects of climate change on the environment and the agricultural activities in
Egypt could be quite drastic. According to the 3rd assessment report of the Intergovernmental
Plan on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) a warming of about 0.7°Celsius has already taken
place in Africa during the 20th century. Observational record showed that the rate of warming
is about 0.05°Celsius/decade (with a slightly higher warming in the pluvial season between
June and November than during the dry season between December and May in Africa south
of the Sahara), Hulme et al, 2001. The IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007)
temperature increase in Alexandria during the interval 1979-2005 was in the range 0.05-
0.15°Celsius/decade. No significant changes in precipitation were given in the report for that
period due to insufficient data. However, the appendix of that report showed regional climatic
changes for North Africa during the period 1980-1999 and a projection trend has been
speculated up to the year 2099. That long-term (>100 years) projection show a rise of about
2.8°Celsius accompanied by precipitation decrease of abut 6% but characterized by a more
accentuated dry season and lower rainfall during the wet season. Moreover, the predictions
given by the Global Circulation Models showed a temperature increase in the range of 3.1 to
4.7°Celsius.
Seawater level rise is of great concern to Lower Egypt where the northern Egyptian
coast would be seriously menaced by submergence. An average rise of 0.15-0.95m is
predicted for the year 2100 around Africa (IPCC, 2001). However, the subject is still under
debate and requires detailed studies. Three reasons were given by Frihy (2003) for the
assumed seawater level rise in the Mediterranean basin (1- climatic change, 2- local tectonic
4
leading to subsidence and emergence and 3- seasonal oceanographic and meteorological
processes). Each of theses three driving forces is valid for Alexandria and the Nile Delta. The
average rate of subsidence was reported as being in the range 0.01-0.50m/100year,
meanwhile the seawater level rise was reported as about 0.16m/100years; that is o say that the
overall value is about 0.75m/100year. Again, and due to high uncertainty the range of
seawater level increase may be in the range 0.50-1.50m within the 21st century. This rise is
dramatic, and should have sharp consequences on the hydrology and soil resources of the
Nile Delta and for sure of the life of millions of the Egyptian population though submergence
of their cultivated lands and cities. To clear the point, a seawater level increase of only 0.5m
in the next 100 years means that 1800 km2 (9 % of the Nile Delta’s arable land) will be
submerged and 4 million people menaced, whereas 1.5m of seawater level rise means that
5700km2 (>28.5% of the Nile Delta’s arable land) will be submerged and 8 million people
menaced, see the map. Consequently, heavy stress should be put on seriously studying this
menace and take quite defendable measure on the national security before it is too late to
study anything or to act against anything.
Alleviation of this quite severe and awful menace is possible through two sets of
scenarios of solution, a regional scenario and a national scenario. The regional scenario
suggests that the nations of the Mediterranean basin should get to a regional consensus and
collaborate to build a huge dam in the Mediterranean Sea to prevent the ocean water level rise
to reach the Mediterranean. This prevention will, on the contrary, to lower the seawater of the
Mediterranean through evaporation by about one meter/year (100m/century) leading to the
emergence of an area of gained land of about 360 000Km2 around the basin, see the map. The
gained land could be reclaimed for cultivation and tourism in the new coastal areas. The
second scenario is of national nature and Egypt alone could take the decision to carry it alone
since Egypt is, just behind Bangladesh and Vietnam, the third country the most menaced in
the world by the seawater level rise due to sever climate change in the next 100 years. Egypt
can build dikes (as Holland did along the last 400 years) to gain land in the Mediterranean in
its own national marine water borders or within its land just on its most northern line to
separate the land and the northern delta lake from the open sea. No international law
problems may stand against the construction of such dikes. Such dicks could not only protect
the northern Egypt territory against seawater rise but also would provide surface-water
storage-reservoirs in the northern lakes through the discharge of drainage water in order to
enhance the hydrostatic water pressure inland (on the southern side of the dicks) to balance
the hydrostatic marine water rise (on the northern side of the dikes) and to decrease water and
soil salinity in that northern belt. The idea is not just dream of mad scientists but a must for
the future!

Objectives
This proposal is intended to cover the following subjects and activities of research and
application:
1) To collect info about the dimensions and state of the problem in Egypt,
2) To form and maintain an environmentally-sensitive teamwork in Cairo University,
3) To test the available environmental parameters applied in Egypt for the environmental
protection in what concern the agricultural activities and their related-actions.
4) To run lab and/or field experimental work on the photosynthesis efficiency of major
crops in Egypt.
5) To run lab chemical experimental work on the adsorption of carbon dioxide gas into
chemically-modified agricultural waste-water ponds using air-bubbling injection
pumps and/or layers of specifically treated agricultural wastes.

5
 6) To carry out lab and field experimental work on low-priced devices to be used in the
control of carbon dioxide gas-emission from currently used agricultural devices
(tractors, electric-power supply thermal-stations and irrigation-water supply machines
including groundwater-uplifting pumps.)
7) To introduce simple devices intended for the storage of carbon dioxide (to be used by
the rural population and small rural business units.)
8) To test and verify new ideas of the recycling of farm wastes in order to safely use it in
producing clean energy or biological fuel instead of simply burning them. Also, some
industrial byproducts (elemental sulfur as byproduct of natural gas production planets
and oil refineries) will be tested to be used for the treatment of alkaline irrigation
water in order to avoid clogging of drippers and tubes that are extensively used in
modern irrigation in desert soils. This example of the use of industrial byproducts
(like burning sulfur into SO2 gas that could be injected in the irrigation water during
chemigation) is one of the examples of the recycling of industrial products in
agriculture.
9) To get a detailed view on the water-table rise and the salinity of the shallow phreatic
water-table in the northern belt of the Nile Delta and its potential future deterioration
under the scenarios of the seawater rise.
10) Predicting a scenario for the hydrostatic pressures and water quality at the northern
lakes of the Nile Delta if protection dikes were to be built to protect the arable land of
Lower Egypt against the seawater rise
11) Running computer simulations concerning seawater intrusion into the northern sector
of the Nile Delta semi-confined aquifer.
12) Compiling the results of the proposed studies in one technical volume for the
professional community and into another simplified volume for the awareness of the
great public.

6
Approach and Methods
Farmers world-wide are believed to rapidly become among the first potential victims
of any extreme climate disturbance-events that would oscillate between two extremes, on one
hand we may get acute and stiff draughts somewhere and, on the other hand, we may get
huge floods through extremely violent thunderstorms and tournedos elsewhere. In both cases,
the world agricultural economy may collapse and sharp food-supply shortages or bottle-necks
would come out (with tragic human security-related problems that may result from such
agricultural supply cuts and food shortages.)
This is the black face of the coin. Nonetheless, the other face of the coin may be a
positive one. Through building an organized awareness in the rural zones, farmers may
become active contributors to the struggle against climate change and environment
degradation. To make this clear we must never forget that all green plants and field crops are
the real “biological pumps” that consume carbon dioxide gas and regulate it on the Earth’s
atmosphere throughout the photosynthesis processes, secondly any potential air-temperature
increase should also give rise to the increase of the vital activity of the living green matter
(which has already different levels of carbon dioxide assimilation efficiency in different
plants). Algae and microorganisms may also play the role of controlling CO2 concentration-
levels in the atmosphere.
However, massive animal production (in particular those of great ruminants) is
believed to be an active source of methane concentration increase, both on a local and global
scales. This animal production of methane may also be controlled in the rural communities.
The use of organic fuel instead of fossil fuel, increasing the use of the organic manure
(Egypt did that during all its long history!) instead of heavily using the fertilizers and the
recycling of farm-wastes for rural households energy-productions through small energy-units
and/or the use of the solar energy in every rural home are just other sets of examples even if
they are not to be soon available everywhere neither to everybody.
Astonishingly, the Earth surface is characterized by a highly differential distribution
of the native vegetations, rain-fed cultivated areas, irrigated fields, deserts and oceans .This
strong differentiation means that the Earth is subject to unbalanced distribution of minor
atmospheric gases. The industrial activities and the poor on-farm practices (like burning the
farm-wastes and the urban wastes) have strongly enhanced this natural differentiation. That is
to say, the recently introduced manmade climate disturbance is currently sharpening the
natural differentiation of the atmosphere. Inversely, this same natural and/or artificial
differentiation may be considered as an additional opportunity for struggling against global
climate change in different ways, in the different localities.
It is claimed that the leading industrial nations are the greatest producers of most
pollutants world-wide (including the green-house gas emissions) whereas the developing and
the third-world countries may become the first victims of the industrial activities and life-
style of industrial nations. Some environmental activists believe that the rich industrial
countries should pay for the global damage they are producing and responsible for, in order to
help the third-world countries in different manners to make them aligned in a global struggle
against this artificial phenomenon. Otherwise, any effort in one place may fail in other places
and all of us will indirectly pay the bill.
In Egypt, we have a very particular situation. Egypt is a huge country but it is almost
exclusively made-up of vast hyper-arid deserts, whereas the over populated irrigated-lands
and urban zones are sized-down to a fraction that represents not more than 5% of the national
territory. During the second half of the last century, Egypt has started to extensively use the
agrochemicals in the cultivation processes and crop production. Along with this practice, a
recent chemical intrusion has also been introduced to the surface and groundwater resources
of the country leading to significant pollution problem. If Egypt may be considered as an
7
active contributor to the assumed global climate change (or not?) this is just a speculation.
This is so for the simple reason that we have no available detailed parameters that would tell
us about our position on the “blacklist”.
Consequently, a first step towards the definition of our position must pass by the
collection of observations during several decades. The Egyptian Environmental Affairs
Agency (EEAE) has claimed installing some data-logger-stations during the last decade in
order to realizing this purpose for almost every piece of info related to the environmental
quality of life in Egypt, including air quality. However, it is believed that these data-stations
are neither capable of covering the live-supporting areas of the national territory (Nile Delta
and Valley) nor providing representative and reliable data on the crucial parameters.
However, one positive point is clearly out coming through the efforts of this leading
agency; it has the unique right (by the Egyptian environmental law) of controlling and
releasing environmental licenses to the Egyptian industrial units and factories on the national
scale, in order to impose certain standards that correspond to the protection of the national
environment. However, the intervention of the EEAE in the rural areas is very limited and the
concerned Ministries (the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources and
Irrigation) have no way to get a look to the major environmental problems in the rural areas
of the country. We ask the question: the rural areas in the country belong to whom from an
environmental point of view?
Moreover, any independent observer or ordinary individual (even those who have no
scientific background) may be astonished at the sharp conflict standing almost everywhere in
the country against the basic environmental requirements and regulations, in particular in the
villages and cities of the rural zones of Egypt, in the semi-urban zones, and specifically in the
most poor rural communities in the countryside, and in the random urban agglomerations
installed nearby the great cities in the last 50 years and also within the capital itself (heavily
traffic, lack of organized collection of urban wastes, poor urban drainage and waste-water
circulation and the mal-maintenance of roads and waterways, etc).
Some extreme scenarios of global warming predict 3-4°Celsius increase in air-
temperature, projected to take place through the next 50-100 years. This would result in
seawater level rise by 0.5-1.0m, mainly due to the anticipated partial polar-ice caps melting.
The Nile Delta northern sector, limited at the south by Tanta city latitude, represents about
50% of whole the Nile Delta area. This northern zone of the delta is just situated few meters
aswl, i.e. within the range of the menace of the expected seawater rise, in particular at the
delta shoreline that includes huge cities like Alexandria, Port-Said, Rosetta and Damietta.
The danger is clear enough to be further stressed or emphasized by any other confirmations
or by any other means. Briefly, millions of Egyptian will be threatened, within one century
starting from now, to lose their work, homeland, cities and precious agricultural productive
areas.
The idea of building a gigantic barrage with titanic channeling gates was proposed
through an extraordinarily vast international cooperation project, to regulate and control
seawater level rise in the Mediterranean Sea. It seems that such huge construction will never
be strong enough to stand long enough or to prevent the extreme marine water stresses. We
have no idea about the fate of such ambitious and impressive project at Gibraltar Passage.
Kyoto Agreement has assumed a massive international collaboration for struggling
against global warming. However, the current efforts are actually at minimum. However, no
excessive obligation plans were accepted and agreed upon by all nations, and USA has not
signed the Kyoto agreement to avoid an internal economic collapse as claimed by the G.W.
Bush administration. Despite the fact that we are all in the same boat some of us prefer
piercing the deck.

8
 Each time Egypt has a chance for decreasing its CO2 emissions we should seriously
take that opportunity. One of the major questions is the increasing demand on the electric
power generated in the country. It may be said that at present less than one fifth of the total
power generated in Egypt is from hydropower at the High Dam at Aswan. The rest of the
generated power is obtained through thermal-stations (fossil fuel burning). Such stations emit
an important fraction of the CO2 emission in the country. Also, the ignition of farm-wastes
and crop residues constitute a major contribution of the countryside in the emission of CO2 in
Egypt.
Moreover, in a nation like Egypt where solar energy is a freely abundant source no
excuses can anymore be forward to advocate the lagging of the installation of wide-scale use
of solar energy in the households of more than 4000 rural agglomerations (villages) where
about 30 million Egyptians are living and working. The famous excuse is assigned to the
heavy investment needed for introducing millions of photocells (to get advantage of the clean
and free solar energy in the rural communities). This excuse has no longer any solid basis.
Prices of solar panels are going down each year and the technology is ever improving for
increasing the efficiency of the transformation of light-energy into electric energy, without
dependence on energy storage or energy transfer from one point to another in a local or in a
regional network.
Even if the investment needed to install photocells in each rural house in Egypt may
exceed the capacity of all the poor farmers and their families in Egypt the government could,
for sure, find an exit out of this crucial financial problem through the organization of a
specific large-scale and long-term rural credit-system specific for the installation of solar
energy panels in each rural house in the country even if this finance should be approved and
supported by an international consortium of fund donors.
Another example is the alternative use of the biological control methods for
combating the agricultural pests each time this is possible instead of using more pesticides
every year. Unfortunately, nobody can tell us how many thousands of tons of pesticides are in
regular use in Egypt every year to lute against insects in the cultivated fields.
The residual effect of the agrochemicals is theoretically well known for their harmful
consequences on soils and water in general and on the human health in particular but nobody
in the country is able to give an exact figure describing neither the direct costs of the
applications of these molecules nor their indirect costs through human health hazards.
We all know that the last few decades have seen the explosion of new diseases in the
rural zones of the country, in particular in the northern sector of the Nile Delta like kidney
failure and so on. Everybody thoughts that these disease are in someway related to the
introduction of agrochemicals in the fragile cultivation system practiced in the irrigated land
of Egypt. However, no direct link is officially or scientifically achieved or recognized. No
food-chain study is done to conclude on this point and the recent health scanning of the
Egyptian population is thought to be deficient. It is time to get info about that issue, to get the
concerned population sensitive to its own health-fate related to the long-term and steady
degradation of the Egyptian rural-environment where we produce a major fraction of our
food supply (crops as well as red and white meat.)
The scientific approach that will be used in this research project may be sub-divided
into two components:

First: A human resources and generic parametric approach

In each research project that has a built-in component touching the development of a
given economic sector, we should keep an eye on the concerned people. Without the
9
sensibility and the enthusiasm of the concerned population to endorse the case dealt with, a
little room will be available to any success. Consequently, three pilot rural populations (in
Middle Egypt, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt) will be targeted for the examination of several
items:
1) Exploring their native ideas about the climate and environmental change problem,
2) Obtaining a preliminary estimate of how they understand the issue when we get them
informed about the damages that would reach their homes and lives or those of their
children and grand children in the next generations within few years.
3) Understanding who they view their own potential contribution in the combat without
giving them further explanation through a scientific staff-member participating in the
project.
4) Showing how they would better react when further explanation is given to them few
weeks later by one or more staff-member during an open discussion without providing
them any written documents but just showing a video film or photos on the expected
scenario of on the global warming and the subsequent environmental changes.
5) Investigating how these populations are ready for accepting to participate in a coming
national/governmental effort in the domain of struggling against climate change and
environmental changes.
6) To see what these population would propose some of their own ideas in order to learn
from them through respecting their immediate interests and fears.
7) To come to an agreement point on how the social-partners would participate into the
combat against the degradation of the rural life as a result of the global warming and
environmental changes.

Second: A material-experimental approach

The major component of the research work is concerned with our immediate rural
environment in Egypt. We have a very fragile rural environment that is perhaps more fragile
than any other one world-wide since we live in a very narrow fluvial plain with limited water
resources and sedimentary soil that resulted from long-term ancient sedimentation by the
River Nile. Also, the newly-cultivated lands in the deserts have their own causes of fragility
due to coarse texture and other problems related to pumping groundwater and the use of
modern irrigation techniques. However we have a false impression and poor behavior of
practicing sever stresses on our environment as if we were living a great powerful country
with unlimited natural resources.
We propose carrying out a systematic study on the residual effect of some
agrochemicals and their relation to the food chain in cooperation with the Food Research
Institute, Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University.
We propose a systematic study on the water-quality in some pilot areas in Egypt
where disastrous health-hazards have exploded in the last few decades. This is in order to
understand the obscure link between the applied agrochemicals and massive health
vulnerability. In some governorates (like Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate), kidney-failure lately
became the rule, not the exception.
Carbon dioxide gas is strongly believed to provide a major contribution to the
greenhouse effect worldwide. Each nation has its own emission of this gas. Does anybody in
Egypt know the yearly production of CO2 in the country? We may get some reliable and
realistic estimates about this emission though the proposed project.
On the other hand, we propose a simple device for the fixation of the excessively and
punctually produced emission of carbon dioxide gas, such as at the thermal stations used for
generating electric power to the rural areas by the ignition of fossil-fuel stocks and at the
outlets of the agricultural machines. The idea of such device may be simple and can be
10
briefly described as making a sink of excessive CO2. This is to be done through passing the
bubbles of the gas into treated wastewater ponds or equivalent tanks after adjusting the pH to
alkaline values using some metal hydroxide like Na OH or Ca (OH) 2. Sulfur dioxide gas has
also a role in this regard.
In addition, we will apply modern hydrochemical, geochemical and biological
methods in the assessment of the environmental hazard of surface water, wastewater, soil
water and groundwater. This will include the isotope hydrology and isotope geochemistry
methods as wall as the simulation methods for the fitness of the breakthrough curve to obtain
water flow and solute transport parameters in the porous system (soils).

Action Plan
1) Design of a questionnaire targeting three pilot rural-populations (Lower, Middle and
Upper Egypt) for the social part of the proposal concerning the investigation on their
knowledge on the climate and environment change problem before and after the
intervention of the staff-members.
2) Holding meetings with the concerned targeted populations to get into an interactive
contact with them.
3) Analyzing the questionnaire and concluding its main features regarding the
understanding and availability of the rural population for the participation in a
national campaign of creating awareness and to combat the phenomenon of climate
and environmental change.
4) Creating a group of climate and environment activists in Cairo University.
5) Collection and verification of data concerning the national emission of green-house
gases.
6) Design and experimentation of simple device for the fixation, storage and/or recycling
of the green-house gases, in particular carbon dioxide in alkaline solutions as well as
studying the efficiency of CO2 gas assimilation in some higher and lower plants
through photosynthesis.
7) Design and experimentation on a simple unit for generating safe energy from farm-
wastes. As well, the SO2 gas (generated from sulfur burner) will be tested for the
acidification of alkaline irrigation water.
9) Experimental lab work on solute transport in soils with water flow and through solute
dispersion in the porous media using the breakthrough curve (BTC) fitness methods
on organic and heavy metal pollutants. As well, analytical work will be done on water
quality in selected pilot areas using the hydrochemical and isotope hydrology methods
10) Recycling of sulfur dioxide gas through transformation into a molecule useful for the
treatment of alkaline soils and the chemical unblocking of irrigation drippers.
11) Experimentation on the use of solar panel for satisfying the usual daily power needs
of a rural household.
12) Studying the link between the expensive use of agrochemicals and kidney fails in
Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate.

11
Expected Outputs
The outputs of the proposed research work could be outline in the following items:

General Outputs
1) Defining the dimensions of the environmental problem in Egypt (for example giving
accurate figures on the CO2 emission in the country and showing the link between the
excessive application of pesticides and herbicides and the health-hazard through soils
and the food chain in Egypt.)
2) Showing and documenting how the local population is, at present, seeing the problem
in question and how this population is ready, (or not?) for participating in the struggle
against the climate and environmental changes world-wide through combating its
massive alerting features in Egypt.
3) Creating local awareness of the pilot population for the case of environmental
degradation and its present-day and potential impacts on our lives, health and the
individual possessions on the national scale.
4) Creating an environment-friendly group in Cairo University that may follow
defending the case of struggling against the climate change and environmental
degradation after the termination of the proposed project.

Experimental Outputs
1) Introducing low-coast device(s) for the fixation and storage of CO2 emitted in the
excessive points of its production in the rural areas of the country.
2) Determination of the distribution of some organic pollutants (agrochemicals and
heavy metals) between soil and water through the application of the break-through
curve (BTC) methods.
3) Determination of some parameters of groundwater aquifers in the country using the
isotope hydrology and geochemical techniques.
4) Assessment and evaluation of the state of soil chemical pollution in Egypt as one of
the most important forms of soil degradation of in the country and its health-hazard.
5) Introducing simple method and device for making use of the sulfur dioxide gas and
turning its harmful impact into a beneficial one for improving alkaline soils and
modern irrigations devices.
6) Experimentation on a small biological unit for the treatment of farm-wastes for safe
energy production

12
Expected Participation of Foreign and/or External Organizations
Several internal (Egyptian) and exterior (foreign and or international) institutions and
organizations may be potentially interested in such type of research work and may support it
in several ways, financially or otherwise through material institutional help. We suggest that
the following organizations would be interested in our proposal and intended work:

1) The Environment Affairs Agency of Egypt

2) The Office of the Prime Minister of Egypt
3) The Ministry of Electricity
4) The Ministry of Health and Population
5) The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
6) The Ministry of Information
7) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of United Nations, Vienna, Austria
8) The United States Geological Survey (USGS), USA
9) The Environment Protection Agency (EPA), USA
10) Research institutes in the Arab region (e.g. The Kuwait Fund for Development)
11) The African Unity fund institutions (e.g. The African Development Bank, ADB)
12) Muslim world fund agencies (e.g. The Islamic Bank)
13) The Canadian Aid
14) The American Aid (US-Aid)
15) The European Community (EC) and one or more of its environmental organization
active in the North-South dialogue

13
References
A. A. Nada, M. F. Hussein and K. Forehlich, 2001
Climatic changes and isotopic content along River Nile valley
In: International Conference on the Study of Environmental Changes using Isotope
Techniques, Book of Extended Synopses, IAEA-CN-80, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 April
2001, pp 101-102
Conway, D. & Hulme, M. (1996). The Impacts of Climate Variability and Future Climate
Change in the Nile Basin on Water Resources in Egypt. Water Resources
Development, 12(3), pp. 277-296.
Daif, M. A, M. F. Hussein, H. A Khater and Sanaa S. Tawfik, 2005
Comparison of chloride breakthrough curves (BTC) in three different soils and their
separates. J. Agric. Sci. Mansoura Univ, 30 (8): 4901-4968
Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). (1999). The Arab Republic of Egypt:
Initial National Communication on Climate Change: Prepared for the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC, pp. 160.
http://www.climate.org/CI/africa.shtml.
El-Tarabily, K.A., A.A. Soaud, M.E. Saleh and S. Matsumoto. 2006.
Isolation and characterisation of sulphur-oxidising bacteria, including strains of Rhizobium, from
calcareous sandy soils and their effects on nutrient uptake and growth of maize (Zea mays L.).
Australian J. of Agricultural Research. Vol. 57(1): 101-111.
Fahmy M. Hussein, Robert L. Michel and Klaus Froehlich, 1998
Historical isotope changes in the River Nile and their relation to the study of groundwater
hydrology of the Nile valley and delta.
In: Gambling with Groundwater - Physical, chemical and Biological Aspects of Aquifer-
Stream Relation. Las Vegas, USA, Brahana et al (eds.) pp 105-110
Frihy, O. E. (2003). The Nile Delta-Alexandria Coast: Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise,
Consequensces and Adaptation. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global
Change, 8(2), pp. 115-138.
Mohamed Fahmy Hussein, Ail Islam, Sawsan Gamal, Moloto-A-Kenguemba Caetan and
Chantal Djebebe, 2008
Geochemistry and Isotope Hydrology of an Urban Aquifer, Subtropical Africa, RCA
Accepted in the bulletin “Isotope and Radiation Research” of the Middle Eastern
Regional Radioisotope Centre for the Arab Countries
Hulme, M., Doherty, R., Ngara, T., New, M. & Lister, D. (2001). African Climate
Change: 1900-2100. Climate Research, 17(2), pp. 145-168.
Briefing notes, july 5th 2007 - 8 -
Hussein, M. F, 2008
Parameters of Conservative Solute Transport in Three Sediments, Egypt
Accepted in the bulletin “Isotope and Radiation Research” of the Middle Eastern
Regional Radioisotope Centre for the Arab Countries
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC). (2007). Working Group I: The
Physical Science Basis, Technical Summary: The Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2001). Working Group II: Impacts,
Adaptation and Vulnerability African region: The third Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2007a). Working Group I: The
Physical Science Basis, Regional Climate Projections-Africa: the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 849-
867. http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2007b). Working Group II:
Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,Summary for Policymakers: The Fourth

14
 Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 1-23.
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM13apr07.pdf.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 21-87.
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_TS.pdf.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pp. 489-525.
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg2/377.htm.
M. F. Hussein, 2001
Water flow and solute transport using environmental isotopes and modeling.
In: Isotope based assessment of groundwater renewal in water scarce regions.
Proceedings of a Final Research Co-ordination Meeting held in Vienna, 18-21 October
1999, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, TECDOC-1246. Pp 231-271
M. Fahmy Hussein, R L Michel, A Nada, K. Froehlich, S. Atta and Tanweer, 1999
Use of isotope geochemistry to determine the effectiveness of water management
strategies, Nile valley, Egypt
In: International Symposium on Isotope Techniques in Water Resources Development
and Management. Book of Extended Synopses, IAEA-SM-361, Vienna, Austria, 10-14
May 1999, pp 63-69
Mohamed Fahmy Hussein, 2001
Monitoring of Land and Water Degradation: Environmental Dimensions and Restoration.
In: Natural Resources and Their Conservation in Egypt and Africa, Institute of African
Research and Studies, Cairo University, 27 p
Muller, M. (2007). Adapting to climate change. Environment and Urbanization, 19(1),
pp. 99-113.
Nada A., Hussein M. F., Al Amir S. and Ramadan, E., 1998
Isotopic and chemical composition of surface and ground-waters in northern Nile valley
land, Egypt.
In: Fourth Arab Conference on the Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy, Tunis: 14-18/1998
AAEA, pp 139-157
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2004).
Development and Climate Change in Egypt: Focus on Costal Resources and the
Nile: Working Party on Global and Structural Policies Working Party on
Development Co-operation and Environment, pp. 68.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/4/33330510.pdf.
Soaud A. Abdou., Fareed H. Al Darweesh and Mohd. Iftekhar Ahmed. 2005.
Removing Salt Deposits from Greenhouse Cooling pad with Acidified water Using Sulfur Burner
Technology. The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference, April 24 th - 26th, 2005.
AlAin, UAE. pp. CFS-16 – CFS-20.
Soaud A. Abdou., Fareed H. Al Darweesh and Motior M. Rahman. 2005.
Effect of acidified water and elemental sulfur application on growth and nitrogen recovery of corn
using 15N fertilizer. The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference, April 24 th - 26th,
2005. pp. CFS-10 – CFS-15.
Soaud, A.A., M. E. Saleh, K. A. El-Tarabily and S. Matsumoto. 2008.
Effect of Amending Urea Fertilizer with Sulfur and Sulfur-Oxidizing Bacteria Strains on
Precision Management of Ammonia Volatilization Loss From Calcareous Sandy Soils.
Proceeding of 9th International Conference on Precision Agriculture. July 20-23, 2008, Denver,
Colorado, USA. Pages 1-11.
Strzepek, K. M. & Yates, D. N. (2000). Responses and Thresholds of the Egyptian
Economy to Climate Change Impacts on the Water Resources of the Nile River.
Climate Change, 46(3), pp. 339-356.

15
 Curriculum Vitae
Prename Mohamed Fahmy Mohamed Name Hussein
Birth Date 16/12/1948 Birth Place Cairo, Egypt
Nationality Egyptian
Social Situation Married and father of two children (19 & 21 years old)
Passport N° 4201 Central Administration of Passports, Tahrir, Cairo
Address 9 Falaky st., Apt 20, 11461 Cairo, Egypt
Cellulaire (+2) 019 261 59 52
E-mail fahmy@link.net
Qualification Doctorat d’État (Doctorat ès Sciences Naturelles)
(Hydrology and Isotope Geochemistry)
Faculty of Sciences, Paris University, Orsay, France
Ph.D. (courses), M.Sc. (Soils and Water) (courses & thesis),
B.Sc. (Spoils and Water) Fac. of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt
Discipline Isotope Hydrology and Geochemistry
Languages English (perfect), French (perfect) and German (beginner)
IT High-end scientific & general-purpose software and Internet
Position Prof. of Isotope Geochemistry, Bangui University, RCA (2006-09)
Conseiller du Ministre de l’Agriculture, RCA (2004-2006)
Professor, Cairo University (2008)
Assistant Professor, Cairo University (1997-2008)
Lecturer, Cairo University (1990)
Research worker, Paris University (XI), France (1982-1990)
Lecturer Assistant, Cairo University (1975-1990)
Assistant, Cairo University (1970-1975)
Awards IAEA, 1993
Fulbright, 1996
Agricultural Faculties, 1999
Egyptian Soil Science Society, 2000
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, 2009
Membership American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Soil Science Society of Egypt (SSSE)
Work Cairo University (1970-present)
Head of Isotope Hydrology lab at the Middle Eastern Regional
Radioisotope Center for the Arab Countries, 1992-1996.
Conseiller at the Ministry of Agriculture,
Central African Republic, RCA, (contract through the
“Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa”, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Egypt, (2004-2009).
Research topics Isotope hydrology and geochemistry, water quality, modeling of
solute transport in both the saturated and unsaturated zones

16
Expertise
A- University teaching
Course Level Language
1. Environmental hydrochemistry B.Sc. and postgraduate French +
English
2. Geochemical Modeling B.Sc. and postgraduate French +
English
3. Isotope Hydrology Postgraduate French +
English
4. Environmental Isotopes Postgraduate French +
English
5. Water Resources B.Sc. Arabic + English
6. Computer Applications B.Sc. Arabic + English
7. University Physics B.Sc. Arabic + English
8. Isotope Geochmistry Postgraduate French +
English
B- Computer experience and water flow modeling
High-end capacity in modeling of water flow, geochemistry of pollutants, tracers,
isotopes and solute transport in the saturated and unsaturated porous zone using special-
purpose packages (e.g. RETC, STANMOD, UNSATCHEM, PHREEQCIV, CHEMFLO,
NETPATH and ROSETTA). Wide experience in general purpose software (spreadsheets,
presentations, word-processing and Internet on compatible and Apple Macintosh PC’s).
C- Analytical Experience
1. Chemical analysis of water and soils.
2. Isotope analysis (18O, 2H, 3H, 12C, 14C, 34S, 15N) in groundwater & sediments.
3. Dynamic experimentation of water flow and solute transport in porous media.
4. X-ray and scanning electron microscopy.
5. Polarizing microscope for studying thin sections.
D- Research Projects and Publications
Principal Investigator of major research projects (with The International Atomic Energy
Agency - IAEA, Vienna - The United States Geological Survey and Cairo University) and
Fulbright fellow in the USGS, California, USA. These Projects has focused on the
environmental quality as well as the recharge and pollution of groundwater. I’m author of
multiple research articles. I have translated several scientific books and articles; for example,
on hydrology, soil resources, fossil and active aquifers, paleo-climatology of the Great
Sahara, the application of numerical simulation in groundwater geochemistry and dynamics
of water flow and solute transport in porous media.

17