Sand seabed – CC by the use of Public Area Image
CAIRO – 10 July 2026: The Egyptian executive, during the Ministry of Water Assets and Irrigation, introduced that it’s finding out proposals to introduce fashionable dredging generation for the primary time in Egypt to pump sand from the seabed onto seashores as a part of efforts to give protection to the Nile Delta’s beach from the affects of local weather trade and sea-level upward thrust.
The proposed generation is a part of the ministry’s broader way to adapt to local weather trade and beef up the sustainability of Egypt’s coastal spaces, the ministry mentioned in a observation on Thursday.
Minister of Water Assets and Irrigation Hani Sweilam mentioned coastal coverage is a key element of local weather adaptation, in particular in spaces liable to coastline erosion, sea-level upward thrust, and seawater intrusion into groundwater. He stressed out that adopting any new coverage generation or selection approach will have to be in response to correct knowledge and complete technical, financial, environmental, and social feasibility research.
Sweilam directed that the find out about review doable sand assets, their availability, and their compliance with technical specs, in addition to implementation prices, repairs necessities, and the environmental and social affects of the usage of the generation. The target, he mentioned, is to spot the most productive and sustainable answers in response to the traits of every coastal website.
In keeping with the Shore Coverage Authority (SPA), the northern coast of the Nile Delta is one of the areas international maximum liable to sea-level upward thrust brought about via world warming. The phenomenon threatens the realm’s herbal assets, together with freshwater, agricultural land, cattle, and fisheries, whilst additionally exacerbating environmental demanding situations akin to coastal erosion, coastline retreat, and the salinization of agricultural land and groundwater within the northern Delta.
What’s sand suction dredging?
A number of strategies are used international to extract sand from the seabed and pump it onto the coastline for seashore nourishment. One of the vital extensively used is the Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD), a generation frequently hired in coastal recovery and seashore nourishment tasks.
Dr. Mohamed Hassan Ghattas, the Chairman of the Shore Coverage Authority (SPA) advised Egypt These days that the generation is in response to extracting sand from the seabed not more than 30 kilometers offshore, taking financial concerns into consideration. Transporting sand from farther offshore would considerably building up prices associated with transportation, apparatus, and gasoline. Environmental concerns also are factored into the method to be sure that sand extraction does now not hurt the seabed.
He defined that wave stipulations are sparsely assessed sooner than dredging starts. In some spaces, sturdy waves can injury dredging apparatus or displace pipes and equipment, making operations unsafe and useless.
He added that the dredger is provided with discharge pipes on the entrance and will perform as with reference to the coastline as conceivable. With a shallow draft of about 3 meters, the dredger can manner the seashore and start pumping sand. In somewhat calm spaces with low wave job, dredgers will also be located at an acceptable distance offshore and pump the sand via pipelines to the seashore.
“In order to transport and pump the sand, whether by the dredger itself or through pipelines, the sand should be mixed with water, with sand making up about 20 percent of the mixture, allowing it to be pumped through the pipes.”
Responding to a query concerning the doable unlock of CO₂ from the seabed throughout dredging, Ghatas confident that the method would now not hurt the marine atmosphere as a result of dredging would happen at a intensity of about 16 meters reasonably than at depths of round 1,000 meters. “The advantage of using seabed sand is that it originates from the same natural marine environment,” he mentioned.
“You are protecting the environment with materials from the same environment and helping it recover,” he added.
Requested concerning the amount of sand deliberate for extraction, Ghatas mentioned surveys offshore of the Delta point out that the to be had seabed sand is promising and to be had in abundance “We found more than 3.5 billion cubic meters of sand, which is more than enough to address coastal erosion and raise beach levels, especially during storms,” he mentioned.
He famous that the federal government is enforcing a number of coastal coverage measures, together with putting in concrete obstacles alongside the coastline and studing to hold out seashore nourishment via sand pumping to arrange for worst-case eventualities related to local weather trade and sea-level upward thrust. He added that the authority has carried out a maritime survey alongside Egypt’s Delta coast to spot sand assets and broaden a strategic plan to mitigate the affects of local weather trade.
“We are building a strategy for future generations, and we are looking for ways to protect the entire Delta region,” he mentioned.
