Editing Economy of Egypt (section)

== Natural resources ==
=== Arable land ===
{{Further|Khedivial Agricultural Society}}

{{multiple image
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 | image1 = Egypt Agricultural Expansion - Before (50309315062).png
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 | image2 = Egypt Agricultural Expansion - Before (50309330057).png
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 | footer = Satellite images depicting the reclamation of desert landscapes on the outskirts of the [[Nile Delta]] into agricultural land, before (left) and after (right).
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Practically all Egyptian agriculture takes place in some {{convert|42,000|km2|e6acre|abbr=off}} of fertile soil in the Nile Valley and Delta,<ref>{{cite news |title=Cabinet says cultivated lands up in 2024 to 10 million feddans |url=https://www.sis.gov.eg/Story/194723/Cabinet-says-cultivated-lands-up-in-2024-to-10-million-feddans?lang=en-us |publisher=State Information Service (Egypt) |date=2024-02-26 |access-date=2025-02-27}}</ref> with the rest of the country being primarily desert.<ref name=ipi-report>{{cite web | url=https://www.ipipotash.org/publications/eifc-269 | title=Country Report on Egyptian Agriculture and Summary of IPI Experiments | website=International Potash Institute (IPI) | publisher=IPI | date=March 2013 | access-date=2025-04-22 }}</ref> Egypt’s generally favorable climate allows for the cultivation of multiple crops annually, with most fields producing two crops per year and some vegetable areas reaching a cropping index of 300 percent.<ref name=ipi-report/>

Since 2009, the growing issue of [[desertification]] has emerged as a significant challenge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2011/07/11/desertification-threat-local-food-production|title=Desertification threat to local food production|date=11 July 2011|website=The New Humanitarian}}</ref> To address this, as well its limited arable land and growing population, Egypt has long pursued land reclamation, with efforts dating back to the 1930s. Since then, 2.6 million [[feddan]] have been reclaimed, increasing agricultural land by 44%.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://sis.gov.eg/Story/162017/New-Delta-project?lang=en-us | title=New Delta project | access-date=1 March 2025 }}</ref> The latest initiative aims to reclaim 4.5 million feddan by 2027, nearly half of Egypt’s existing cultivated land. The largest of these projects, the New Delta Project, spans 2.2 million feddan, the project accounts for about 25% of the country’s historically reclaimed agricultural lands. The Future of Egypt, the first phase of this initiative, covers 1 million feddan and includes an industrial zone for agricultural industries.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/2/523526/Egypt/Society/President-Sisi-inaugurates--harvest-season-at-%E2%80%98Fut.aspx | title=President Sisi inaugurates harvest season at ‘Future of Egypt’ project | date=7 February 2024 | access-date=1 March 2025 }}</ref>
[[File:ISS049-E-33726 - View of Egypt.jpg|thumb|right|[[Center-pivot irrigation]] in the [[Sharq El Owainat]] project]]
To provide water for the project, Egypt constructed the [[New Delta Wastewater Treatment Plant]], the largest of its kind globally, as a key component of the country’s strategy to expand agricultural land and enhance water security.<ref name=treatmentplant>{{cite news | url=https://www.metito.com/news-detail/egypts-new-delta-treatment-plant-sets-four-guinness-world-records-revolutionizing-and-setting-unprecedented-agriculture-and-environmental-preservation-standards/ | title=Egypt’s New Delta Treatment Plant Sets Four Guinness World Records | date=29 March 2023 | access-date=1 March 2025 }}</ref> With a daily capacity of 7.5 million m³, the plant supports irrigation efforts and mitigates pollution in [[Lake Mariout]] and the Mediterranean Sea.<ref name=treatmentplant/>

Additionally, the [[New Valley Project|Toshka Project]], initiated in the 1990s, was revived under President El-Sisi’s administration. This initiative aims to reclaim 1.5 million feddan<ref>{{cite news | url=https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/491770.aspx | title=Egypt racing against time to add 3.5 mln feddans of agricultural land, says Sisi | date=15 March 2023 | access-date=1 March 2025 }}</ref> in the [[Western Desert]] using water from [[Lake Nasser]], transported via the Sheikh Zayed Canal.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://wilo.com/en/Pioneering/Stories/Toshka-reclaiming-land-for-sustainable-use-_28417.html | title=Toshka: reclaiming land for sustainable use | access-date=1 March 2025 }}</ref>

Acquisition and ownership of desert land in Egypt is governed by the [[Egyptian Desert Land Law]] (Law No. 143 of
1981). It defines desert land as the land two kilometers outside the border of the city.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gafi.gov.eg/English/StartaBusiness/Laws-and-Regulations/Documents/LandandRealEstateOwnershipLaws.pdf |title=Land and Real Estate Ownership Laws |publisher=General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) |access-date=2025-04-22 }}</ref>

=== Water resources ===
{{Main|Water resources management in modern Egypt}}

[[File:Aswan Nile R21.jpg|thumb|The [[Nile]] river at [[Aswan]].]]

"Egypt", wrote the Greek historian [[Herodotus]] 25 centuries ago, "is the gift of the Nile".<ref name=fanack-water>{{cite web |url=https://water.fanack.com/egypt/water-resources-in-egypt/ |title=Water Resources in Egypt |website=Fanack Water |date=June 5, 2024 |access-date=2025-04-22 }}</ref> Due to the country's arid climate and minimal rainfall, the vast majority of Egypt’s population and agricultural activity is concentrated along the [[Nile Valley]] and [[Nile Delta]].<ref name=lakenasser>{{cite journal |last1=El-Shirbeny |first1=M.A. |last2=Abutaleb |first2=K.A. |title=Monitoring of Water-Level Fluctuation of Lake Nasser Using Altimetry Satellite Data |journal=Earth Systems and Environment |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=367–375 |year=2018 |doi=10.1007/s41748-018-0053-y |url=https://www.kau.edu.sa/Files/902888/Files/159810_201802-paper14.pdf |access-date=2025-04-22 }}</ref> The Nile Valley in Egypt is a narrow, elongated corridor of fertile land that cuts through an otherwise arid and hyper-arid landscape. Bordered by vast desert plateaus to the east and west, the valley forms a ribbon of greenery stretching from the Sudanese border in the south to the Nile Delta in the north.<ref name=lakenasser/>

To manage its limited water resources, Egypt constructed the [[Aswan High Dam]], completed in 1970, which created [[Lake Nasser]], one of the world’s largest artificial reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 130 billion m³. The dam plays a critical role in regulating Nile flows, enabling year-round irrigation, and mitigating flood and drought cycles.<ref name=lakenasser/> With a fixed annual release of 55.5 billion m³ (1.96&nbsp;trillion cu ft), as stipulated by the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan,<ref name=ipi-report/> it constitutes 97 percent of the country's renewable water resources.<ref name=fanack-water/>

Facing increasing water scarcity and rising demand, Egypt has adopted treated wastewater reuse as a strategic component of its national water management policy.<ref name=wastewatertreatment>{{cite journal |last1=Ahmed |first1=Ahmed Khaled Abdella |last2=Shalaby |first2=Moussa |last3=Negim |first3=Osama |last4=AbdelWahed |first4=Talaat |title=Comparative Study of the Egyptian Code for Reusing Treated Wastewater for Agriculture |journal=Sohag Engineering Journal |volume=2 |issue=1 |date=March 2022 |pages=1–14 |url=https://sej.journals.ekb.eg/article_217170_c1e33a0d75efb0cfd884c88b29ede019.pdf }}</ref> The volume of wastewater produced in Egypt is approximately 16.4 billion m³ annually, comprising 4.4 billion m³ of municipal sewage and 12 billion m³ of agricultural drainage water.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/egypt-water-and-environment |title=Egypt - Water and Environment |website=Country Commercial Guides |publisher=International Trade Administration |date=2022-08-08 |access-date=2025-04-22}}</ref> As of recent estimates, Egypt operates over 400 wastewater treatment plants employing a range of technologies including activated sludge, oxidation ponds, up-flow anaerobic sludge blankets, and membrane bioreactors. Treated wastewater is primarily reused for agricultural irrigation.<ref name=wastewatertreatment/>

Rainfall in Egypt is minimal, with significant precipitation occurring only along the [[North coast of Egypt|north coast]], where annual averages range between 50 and 250 millimetres.<ref name=fanack-water/> Rainfall increases eastward, reaching about 150 mm in [[Arish]] and 250 mm in [[Rafah, Egypt|Rafah]]. Based on average winter precipitation, the volume of rainwater falling over the northern regions of Egypt, which cover an area of approximately 200,000 km², is estimated at 5 to 10 billion m³  per year.<ref name=fanack-water/> Of this, about 1.5 billion m³ contributes to surface runoff, while most of the remainder evaporates or percolates into the groundwater system.<ref name=fanack-water/> In the Sinai Peninsula, surface runoff from rainfall amounts to approximately 131.67 million m³ per year, constituting 5.25% of total rainfall there. Only 200–300 million m³ are effectively harvested in regions such as Sinai, the north coast, and the Red Sea mountains.<ref name=fanack-water/>

==== Desalination ====
Desalination plays a growing role in Egypt's water strategy, particularly in coastal areas lacking conventional freshwater sources. Although seawater contains high salinity levels of up to 35,000 ppm, modern desalination technologies can produce high-quality drinking water.<ref name=fanack-water/> However, the process remains costly, with expenses influenced by the type of energy, technology used, and project scale. Egypt currently operates 90 desalination plants with a combined capacity of 1.3 billion m³ annually, built at a cost of $0.4 billion. Of these, 76 are fully operational, producing 850,000 m³ per day.<ref name=fanack-water/>

Egypt has launched an ambitious long-term desalination strategy aimed at addressing chronic water scarcity by significantly expanding its desalination capacity. Under this national plan, the country seeks to quadruple its seawater desalination output through the construction of 21 new plants. These proposed facilities will collectively add 3.3 million m³ per day, alleviating pressure on the Nile. In a subsequent phase, Egypt plans to boost total desalination capacity by an additional 8.8 million m³ per day, with a projected investment of $8 billion.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fluencecorp.com/state-of-desalination-in-egypt/ |title=The State of Desalination in Egypt |website=Fluence Corporation |date=2023 |access-date=2025-04-22}}</ref>

==== Groundwater ====
{{Also|Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System}}
Egypt's groundwater resources consist of both renewable and non-renewable aquifers. Renewable groundwater is primarily drawn from two shallow reservoirs associated with the [[Nile River]] system: the Nile Valley aquifer, with reserves estimated at 200 billion m³, and the Delta aquifer, with reserves of about 400 billion m³.<ref name=fanack-water/> As of 2017, an estimated 7.2 billion m³ of groundwater was extracted annually, with the Delta aquifer accounting for approximately 85 percent of this total. This extraction rate remains below the estimated safe limit of 7.5 billion m³ per year, according to the Groundwater Research Institute.<ref name=fanack-water/> Groundwater quality in these regions is generally high, with salinity levels ranging from 300 to 800 parts per million in the southern Delta.<ref name=fanack-water/> 

Non-renewable groundwater sources are located in the deeper aquifer systems of the [[Eastern Desert|Eastern]] and [[Western Desert (Egypt)|Western Desert]] and the [[Sinai Peninsula]].<ref name=fanack-water/>  The most significant among them is the [[Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System]],<ref name=fanack-water/> the world's largest known [[fossil water]] [[aquifer]] system. This vast underground reservoir, located beneath the eastern end of the [[Sahara]] desert, extends across the political boundaries of four northeastern African countries.<ref>[http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/ih/Nubian/IHS_nubian.html International Atomic Energy Agency: NSAS Project] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020163247/http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/ih/Nubian/IHS_nubian.html |date=2007-10-20 }}</ref> The system spans approximately 2.2 million km², with about 826,000 km² located in Egypt, nearly 40% of the total area and the largest share among the four countries, covering over 80% of the country's land surface.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hamad |first=Salah |title=Characterization and management evaluation of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer in Tazerbo wellfield of the Libyan man-made river project |journal=Applied Water Science |volume=12 |issue=7 |date=July 2022 |doi=10.1007/s13201-022-01684-6 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360754649_Characterization_and_management_evaluation_of_the_nubian_sandstone_aquifer_in_Tazerbo_wellfield_of_the_Libyan_man-made_river_project |access-date=25 April 2025|doi-access=free }}</ref> Estimates of its total freshwater volume are as high as 500,000 billion m³.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hosseini |first1=Zohreh |last2=Raeisi |first2=Ezzat |last3=Abdollahifard |first3=Iraj |last4=Teatini |first4=Pietro |title=Comprehensive hydrogeological study of the Nubian aquifer System, Northeast Africa |journal=Journal of Hydrology |volume=636 |date=June 2024 |pages=131237 |doi=10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.131237 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022169424006322 |access-date=25 April 2025}}</ref> Due to the depth of the aquifer and associated extraction costs, current withdrawals in Egypt are limited to approximately 0.6 billion m³ annually, primarily for irrigation in land reclamation projects. Sustainable extraction is projected to increase to 2.5–3 billion m³ per year in the future, contingent on cost-effective pumping technologies.<ref name=fanack-water/>

=== Mineral and energy resources ===
{{See|Mining industry of Egypt}}
{{See|Energy in Egypt}}

[[File:Darfeel plat.png|thumb|An offshore platform in the Darfeel Gas Field]]

Egypt possesses substantial mineral wealth, spanning both petroleum and non-petroleum resources. The country has deposits of gold, copper, iron ore, phosphate, uranium, tantalum, manganese, chromium, coal, zinc, lead, tin, and black sand minerals such as ilmenite, zircon, rutile, and magnetite<ref name=minerals>{{cite news |url=https://www.intellinews.com/egypt-s-mineral-wealth-shifting-away-from-oil-and-gas-dependence-321266/ |title=Egypt's mineral wealth: shifting away from oil and gas dependence |date=2024-04-23 |work=bne IntelliNews |access-date=2025-04-22}}</ref> It also produces abundant industrial materials like granite, marble, limestone, white sand, kaolin, and feldspar.<ref name=minerals/> These resources are primarily located in the [[Red Sea Governorate|Eastern Desert]], [[Western Desert]], [[Sinai Peninsula]], and Alaqa Valley.<ref name=minerals/>

The Eastern Desert hosts over 1,000 ancient mining sites, including Egypt’s largest gold mine, [[Sukari mine|Sukari]], which began production in 2009 and has since produced over 5 million ounces of gold. Egypt's gold exports reached $1.63 billion in 2022.<ref name=minerals/> The country’s known reserves include 3.1 billion metric tons of iron ore near [[Aswan]], 48 million tons of tantalite in [[South Sinai]], and 16 million tons of coal in [[North Sinai]].<ref name=minerals/> Uranium is found in the Eastern Desert and Sinai, with estimated reserves of 1,900 metric tons.<ref name=minerals/> Manganese deposits at Um Bogma are estimated at 1.7 million tons, and copper reserves are about 1.6 million tons. The country also holds an estimated 700,000 tons of tin.<ref name=minerals/>

Petroleum remains a cornerstone of Egypt's economy, accounting for approximately 25% of GDP. As of late 2023, Egypt had proven oil reserves of 3.1 billion barrels, with production around 559,000 barrels per day, and natural gas reserves of 2.1 trillion cubic meters, producing 175 million cubic meters per day.<ref name=minerals/>

Recent legislative reforms, such as the Mineral Resources Law No. 198 of 2014 and Executive Regulations No. 108 of 2020, have modernized the investment climate.<ref name=minerals/> These laws eliminated profit-sharing requirements, simplified licensing, and introduced tax incentives.<ref name=minerals/> Egypt aims to increase mining’s contribution to GDP from 0.5% in 2021 to 5% by 2040, raising annual sector exports from $1.6 billion in 2020 to $10 billion.<ref name=minerals/> The government has set a target of $1 billion in annual mining investments by 2030.<ref name=minerals/>