Approach for Reusing the Flow of El Rahawy Drain at the Qattara Depression

Egypt is facing a water scarcity problem; it is a must to reuse drainage water to substitute this deficit between supply and demand. Also the drainage water is polluted and needs to be purified before reusing it. Therefore an approach is proposed herein to reuse the flow discharge of El Rahawy Drain that drains its water to Rosetta Branch (the second most polluted drain in Egypt) and convey its water to the Qattara Depression in the North West of Egypt. This proposed approach and its assessment presents basic background data about the Qattara Depression characteristics, El Rahawy Drain water quality, self purification mechanism of pollutants, digital elevation model (DEM) for the studied area and preliminary economic evaluation of the approach. Two alignment paths were selected and the existing levels were computed employing a digital elevation model (DEM). Proposed design of the canal bed levels, pump and turbine stations locations were determined for the two paths. The proposed path length that exceeds 250 km between El Rahawy Drain and the Qattara Depression will improve its water quality by self purification. This approach will add a new source to the Qattara Depression water resources which will accordingly develop various activities in the area, with the additional benefits of reducing the pollution at the Rosetta Branch that consequently improving the public health.