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Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hani Sewilam said on 25 October that the country needs about 120 billion cubic metres of water each year and can meet 89 billion through available resources, water reuse and virtual-water imports. He made the remarks at the opening of the ninth Cairo Water Week. The figures are the minister’s account at the event; the report does not break out how each component is calculated.
Sewilam said this year’s Cairo Water Week was held under the theme “Water as a Catalyst for Peace, Shared Prosperity and a Sustainable Planet.” He listed challenges that include unilateral actions upstream on the Nile, climate change, population growth and seawater intrusion into coastal land. He described cooperation as key to water management. The statement sets out government priorities at a conference opening; it does not announce a new agreement among Nile Basin states.
The minister’s per-capita figure illustrates the longer-term pressure he described. Egypt’s annual per-person water share was around 2,000 cubic metres in the 1960s, began falling in the early 1990s and reached 473 cubic metres, according to his remarks. The report gives no underlying calculation method, population series or precise measurement period, so the figures are presented as attributed statements rather than independently reconstructed estimates.
The difference between 120 billion and 89 billion cubic metres should not be read as the measured shortfall of one reservoir or distribution network. Sewilam described a broad national needs-and-coverage frame that includes water reuse and virtual water embodied in imported food. Virtual water means water used to produce goods that are imported; it is not a separate physical flow into Egypt. The report does not explain the components or show how they change year to year.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s opening speech described the Nile as foundational to Egypt’s historical and economic life and presented Cairo Water Week as a platform for dialogue, expertise exchange and partnership. That speech supplies the event’s diplomatic framing. It does not, by itself, provide new technical measurements of basin allocations, river flows or salinity intrusion into coastal aquifers.
Seawater intrusion into coastal land, climate impacts and population growth can affect water management through different mechanisms. The official remarks list them together but do not quantify each one’s contribution. The source therefore cannot establish how much of the 120-billion-cubic-metre need comes from households, agriculture or industry, or how the 89 billion is divided among domestic freshwater, reuse and virtual imports.
The event’s news value lies in presenting water constraints alongside supply management and regional cooperation. The 25 October statement records the minister’s figures and priorities; it is not evidence that a target has been met or that a new project has started. Assessing progress would require later water balances that define components and methods, together with use data and operational results.
The reported numbers are also not a forecast. They describe the minister’s account at the opening session on 25 October and do not set a quantified future supply target. A later official release would need to define the reference year, whether the figures are gross or net of losses, and the treatment of imported virtual water to make year-on-year comparisons reliable.