Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Hani Sewilam, said on Monday that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is putting pressure on Egyptian water resources.

Most private flour mills in Egypt, the world’s largest importer of wheat, have been forced to shut down due to a supply crisis, Africa Intelligence website revealed on Monday.

The pharaohs worshipped it as a god, the eternal bringer of life. But the clock is ticking on the Nile. Climate change, pollution and exploitation by man are putting existential pressure on the world’s second longest river, on which half a billion people depend for survival.

US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, stressed that the US is committed to maintaining Egypt’s water security and supporting Egypt’s endeavors to settle the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis.

The Egyptian government announced May 26 its decision to expand seawater desalination projects in the upcoming period, especially in coastal and border cities, by building 14 new plants.

Egypt’s Minister of Local Development, General Mahmoud Shaarawy, declared on 20 May that Egypt had reached water poverty based on the universal standards set by the United Nations (UN).

Capacity of seawater desalination plants in coastal cities has increased currently to 917,000 cubic meters per day from only 80,000 cubic meters per day in 2014, Deputy Minister of Housing for Infrastructure Affairs Sayed Ismail said.

While conducting research on how heat shocks affect wheat growing in Egypt, climate adaptation expert Saber Osman had to use his own money to fund his work.

Egypt has almost nine months before its wheat reserve dries up as the country fears disruption of wheat supply from Russia, following Moscow’s war on Ukraine this week, a government spokesman said Friday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has recently revealed that his country has reached the stage of water poverty with less than 500 cubic meters of water per capita a year.