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Groundwater of Egypt: “an environmental overview”

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Although Egypt has the great Nile River, which is the main supply of water, Egypt’s water is limited to 55.5 billion m3 per annum. Owing to the rapid growth of the population and the increasing consumption of water in agriculture, industry, domestic use, etc., it is expected that Egypt will rely to some extent on groundwater to develop the new projects such as Tushka in Upper Egypt and East Oweinat. Issues related to groundwater in Egypt are identified with the common geological features associated with formation of the aquifers and demonstrating the location of the main resources of groundwater, followed by the main objective of this paper, which is addressing the environmental issues related to groundwater in Egypt. Several studies have been reviewed and personal communication made with the authorities to introduce this work and provide an overview of the groundwater quality problems in Egypt with examples from different parts of the country.

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Acknowledgments

The authors like to express their thanks to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources authorities for supplying the up-to-date data on the water demands and use in the country. Sincere thanks are due to Engineer Hussein Idris, for supplying early exploration data.

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Correspondence to M. R. El Tahlawi.

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El Tahlawi, M.R., Farrag, A.A. & Ahmed, S.S. Groundwater of Egypt: “an environmental overview”. Environ Geol 55, 639–652 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-1014-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-1014-1

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