Egypt: Lessons from the January floods in Sinai

Floods in and around the northern Egyptian city of Al-Arish in January have highlighted the need for more and better quality disaster preparedness planning in the governorate and nationwide, officials say.

“The floods were a surprise as North Sinai had not seen floods in 30 years,” said Mohamed Fawzi, head of the Crisis and Disaster Management Sector at the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC).

He said the governorate was included in national flood planning, but few disaster preparedness activities had been undertaken.

“Other governorates, which get flooded almost every year, like South Sinai, the Red Sea and Upper Egypt [an area including many governorates], regularly do preparedness exercises, which is not the case in North Sinai,” he said, adding that only now had there been any talk of annual exercises.

The January floods in North Sinai left 780 homes totally destroyed, 1,076 submerged, and much other damage.

No building in watercourses

Muhammad al-Kiki, secretary-general of North Sinai Governorate, told IRIN one lesson learnt had been not to build in, or near, dried up watercourses (wadis). “Some people built huts and others planted trees in the floodwater gullies and hence were the ones most affected. They also harmed other people as the water diverted to other places.”

Photo: Dana Hazin/IRIN

Huts built in a floodwater gully. People living in these are the worst affected by floods

Action was quickly taken after the floods: “We started cleaning up the watercourse immediately, removing all the trees and huts. We also started reinforcing the banks of the waterway.”

He said roads traversing waterways had also hindered the flow of water. “We are studying road construction options which allow water to flow smoothly below or over them,” he said.

The Egyptian Humanitarian Relief and Rehabilitation Organization (HRRO), an NGO working on disaster preparedness by raising awareness in local communities, has experience of these issues in other governorates, but Sinai was a problem, said Ayman Ghanem, head of programmes at HRRO.

“Disaster preparedness has proven difficult in Sinai. Many people are nomads and it is very difficult to convince them of the importance of disaster preparedness. They had not seen floods for more than 30 years so they were more concerned about current needs [food aid for poor families, education] than preparing for a disaster which, they said, may or may not happen.”

Silt

One positive aspect of the flooding is that it helped replenish groundwater reserves. “The floods boosted groundwater reserves which are the main source of freshwater in the governorate. They also brought silt, which is very good for crops. We planted 30,000 feddans [126 square kilometres] of wheat,” said North Sinai Governorate’s al-Kiki.
Silt also reduces erosion of the coast when flood water reached the sea.

Meanwhile, the governorate is planning to build 200 water catchments for irrigation purposes, al-Kiki said.

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