In Egypt and beyond, a climate crisis as close as the nearest water tap
As world leaders gather for a summit on global warming some 300 miles away, Nile Valley farmer Samayni says he has little time to think about climate change.
Standing among his date and mango groves, with the Black Pyramid of Dahshur looming above, in an area where people have farmed for millennia, as he sees it he is simply struggling to make more with a formerly abundant resource.
“Forget about climate change, rising temperatures, or the ozone – our main problem here is water,” he says, gesturing to a bone-dry irrigation canal near to his farm. While in previous years Nile water would flow down this channel each day, he and other farmers now get irrigation water once every 20 days as part of new allocation rotation.
“We are struggling to continue with less and less water, and our ability to feed ourselves as a people is in danger.”
Here in the Middle East, home to the most water-stressed countries on Earth, conserving and
