Remediation of Agricultural Drainage Water for Sustainable Reuse

Abstract

Water scarcity is among one of the most major problems in many countries around the world. Egypt is one of the countries facing great challenges due to its limited water resources, represented mainly by its fixed share of water from the Nile River, and its general aridity. The scarcity of water resources in Egypt has triggered the need for using different types of low quality water. Agricultural Drainage Water (ADW) is considered as a strategic reserve for coping with increasing freshwater demands. Traditionally, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) has adopted different strategies aimed at increasing the use of ADW to confront the prevailing water scarcity. However, increasingly widespread pollution in the drainage system threatens these reuse strategies. Unfortunately, drainage networks in Egypt receive a large amount of untreated domestic and industrial wastewater. This chapter discusses the Egyptian water resources, and the ADW reuse activities in Egypt as a nonconventional water resource in Egypt.