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Report on the NeXus-Excursion to Cairo, Egypt

Contents Monday, 27th of October, 2014: Faculty of Engineering Helwan University .......................................... 1

Tuesday, 28th of October, 2014: German University Cairo, Heliopolis University .................................. 4

Wednesday, 29th of October, 2014: Cairo Univeristy .............................................................................. 7

Thursday, 30th of October, 2014: National Water Resources Center (NWRC) ........................................ 9

Saturday, 1st of November, 2014: Solar Power Activities in Wadi El Natroun Station .......................... 11

Monday, 27th of October, 2014:

Faculty of Engineering Helwan University

After arriving in Cairo at Sunday, 26th of October, 2014, the first institution to visit was the faculty of Engineering at the Helwan University in Cairo.

Figure 1: Architectural and Civil Engineering building, Helwan University

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The first presentation, held by Prof. Dr. Alaa Sherif, introduced the Helwan University in gen-eral. It was established in 1955 and consists of twenty faculties. The faculty of engineering comprises six departments (Mathematics and Physics, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Auto-motive Engineering, Mechanical Engineering – Power, Mechanical Design). In 2014, the fac-ulty had 4845 undergraduate and 1736 graduate students. Furthermore, it is currently a partner university of Germany, Canada and the USA.

The second presentation was held by Prof. Dr. Ayman George and was about the river Nile, its seasonal runoff variation and the influence of the British hydrologist Harold Edwin Hurst, who did a massive research about the Nile and its hydrological behaviour (among others: The Nile Basin, Vol. I, General Description of the Basin, Meteorology, Topography of the White Nile Basin, by H.E. Hurst, and P. Philips 1931) In 1946, Hurst proposed his concept of a ‘’Century Storage’’, a plan to build several water reservoirs and storages along the Nile and it’s lakes in order to be able to come through a drought which statistically appeared once every hundred years.

Figure 2: Fluid Mechanics Lab, Helwan University

Figure 3: Ongoing lecture during the visit, Helwan University

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During his research about the required water volume to hold back in the reservoirs and stor-ages, Hurst found that his empirical data led to a bigger volume than the statistical methods used at that time. His discovery later led to adaptions of the mathematical statistics and the development of the so called Hurst exponent. The third presentation dealt with the current status of wastewater collection and treatment in Egypt, held by Dr. Mustafa Ashmawy. Since the PowerPoint slides of this presentation were unfortunately not available, the detailed content of the presentation cannot be completely sum-marised. In general, currently only half of the population in Egypt is connected to sanitary sew-ers. Therefore, still 65% of the water is released into the Nile without being properly treated as of 2004 (acc. to Wikipedia). In the fourth presentation, Dr. Mohamed Eizeldin and Prof. Peter Rutschmann, presented an ‘’Estimation of Useful Lifetime of Nile River Reservoirs’’ by using different methods (Trap effi-ciency, Siyam method). The objective was to find a relation between the existing and the ex-pecting Nile reservoirs (reservoir sedimentation) and their trap efficiency at any stage of their remaining capacities. By applying this method on the reservoirs in Egypt, they could show that the Shereik reservoir will lose 80% of its capacity after 722 years and the Kajbar reservoir will lose 80% of its capacity after 9200 years. The fifth presentation was held by Mrs. Mathilde Cuchet, who presented the results of her dissertation. Two objectives were to investigate the fish behaviour pattern to an inclined screen to improve the fish protection at the turbine intake as well as to evaluate the influence of the screen inclination to guide the fish to a surface passage. As a result of several experiments, it could be shown that with an appropriate bar clearance and approach velocity, the screen is a very effective mechanical barrier to prevent fishes going through the turbine passage and that a low inclined screen with small bar clearance provides the best fish protection and guidance to a surface bypass.

Figure 4: Inside of one of the campus buildings, Helwan University

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The sixth and last presentation was held by Dr. Shokry Abdelaziz and dealt with a numerical simulation of fish upstream movement downstream of Dam. Therefore, a model was developed to simulate the fish movement and was applied to two different plan data. In this model, fishes swim in direction of the highest velocity. As a result, the model could simulate the fish movement inside the pool with good estimation of the minimum time taken. However, it was concluded that more efforts are required to add the resting zone to the model.

Tuesday, 28th of October, 2014: On the second day two universities were visited, which don’t have a cooperation agreement with the NeXus project yet. The possibilities for a future cooperation were explored formally and in terms of content and the universities had the opportunity to present themselves.

German University Cairo The German University of Cairo (GUC) is a private, non-profit university located in the eastern part of the city. It was founded in 2003 and is currently one of the biggest education-projects supported by the german government. The courses are held in English and the students have the opportunity to learn German, too. The GUC was established in cooperation with the Uni-versities of Stuttgart and Ulm and is patronized by the DAAD and the Federal Ministry of Edu-cation and Research of Germany. The offered undergraduate and graduate schools are the following: Faculty of Applied Sciences and Arts, Faculty of Engineering and Materials Science, Faculty of Information Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Media Engineering and Tech-nology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, Faculty of Management Technology, Faculty of Postgraduate studies and Scientific Research. It is the first integrated German university outside Germany that has 3 Bologna cycles, namely B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD offering 71 study programs (31 undergraduate and 40 postgraduate). A wide variety of social, political and eco-nomic activities is offered for the students.

Figure 5: Campus, German University Cairo

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Visiting the German University of Cairo gave us a chance to experience how the student life in a german university outside Germany is. A Round Table Discussion was hold to work out the formalities and research content between the TUM and the GUC. Furthermore we had a guided tour through the university laboratories. Firstly, we viewed the hydraulics laboratory, where we got a short overview on the different facilities. Amongst other we got informed about the Depth Filtrator, Bernoulli’s Principle, Evaporation Process, Biofilm Process, Visualisation of Seepage Flows and Experimental Flume.

Afterwards, we viewed the geotechnics laboratory, where we also got a short overview as well as demonstration of the different equipment, amongst other the Proctor Test, Vane Shear Test, Undrained Triaxial Test, Unconfined Compression Test, Grain Size Analysis and Determina-tion of Moisture Content. Repeatedly it was emphasized that the student life at the university is not too short. There are Sports and Music Events, as well as an active student council. All in all the high tuition fees are represented in the excellent facilities, if this leads to special teaching or research results now or in future remains to be seen.

Heliopolis University for sustainable development

The arrival by bus in a suburb situated further out of Cairo, run past military area and barracks. Behind the walls a very responsive designed green campus, which is created to anthropo-sophic rules, was found (Figure 7). Before Dr. Rasha Elkholy explained the university and the concept behind it, the visit was first introduced with a musical performance. Since 2012, stu-dents are educated to a holistic approach and the Heliopolis University is the first university in the Middle East, which is not commercially oriented and prescribed itself solely to a sustainable future development.

Figure 6: Teaching Experiment in the Hydraulics Laboratory, German University Cairo

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A deeper insight into the philosophy was offered with the game "Bye-bye Oil" and a eurythmy exercise. The campus is designed environmentally friendly: In the botanical garden drip irriga-tion is installed and the waste is separated. Furthermore wastewater is treated in an own treat-ment plant. Eng. Mohamed Reda showed on the rooftop located photovoltaic systems, which contribute to the power supply. In Egypt the dust from the surrounding desert is a big problem and therefore the modules, and the pyranometer must be cleaned regularly. There were tested different modules and positioned in various angles in order to optimize their performance. How-ever, the entire surface of the photovoltaic modules up on the roof is not sufficient, in order to operate only one of the numerous adjacent air conditioning. For further questions and a dis-cussion Bianca Fliss was available on the bus at the drive home and at a joint dinner.

Figure 7: View over the green campus, Heliopolis University

Figure 8: Mohamed Reda explains the Research Photovoltaic System, Heliopolis University

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Wednesday, 29th of October, 2014:

Cairo University

After we visited the German University Cairo yesterday, a retort university for Egypt's upper class, and could convince us that for many even tuition fees of up to $ 25,000 are no problem and a Hummer (very large automobile) is also suitable for the ride to the university, it goes today to the honorable Cairo University. Honorable because this is the second largest university in Africa and it is with about 200 000 students and 18 000 scientific employees one of the largest universities in the world. After the Islamic Al-Azhar University (founded 975) it is the second oldest university in Egypt (founded 1908) and has brought personalities as Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Secretary General of the United Nation from 1992-1996) and Yasser Arafat (founder of the Palestinian Fatah and longtime leader PLO) forth. But the first impression is still quite modest, because the engineering faculty is a bit off-hand the main campus and looks quite simple.

The welcome is once again very friendly and accommodating. Coffee, tea and cakes and as a special attention small perfume bottles were handed out. Then, after everyone had found its place Dr. Ablella (Head of Engineering Faculty) began to present the university in general and his faculty in particular.

Figure 9: The main building of the Faculty of Engi-neering, Cairo University

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Here, he explained to us quite accurately the rules, procedure and the structure and tried to charge us the processes that a student have to go through in his department. It quickly became clear that this was a direct offer to all students as well as those in charge of the Technical University of Munich, to fill the still in its early stages being cooperation with life. And this like-able and quite competently acting man had not missed his target. Not only I toyed with the idea to get to this proud university and work on one of the proposed Bachelor's and Master's thesis in the future. Here the hand for future cooperation was served to us and the entire TU Munich in a very serious way. The second lecturer was standing opposite to us as a rather inconspicuous, almost shy-looking man. One could almost assume that the janitor accidentally got lost and did not quite know what he should tell us about "Egypt Water Issues and Research”. But as so often the appear-ances are deceptive and Prof. Dr. Ashraf Ghanem turns out, at least in my humble knowledge, as a true expert in his field. His somewhat discreet and factual style is the perfect combination to generate interest in the subject and to bring contexts closer. A Professor at which you can be happy if you can participate in his lecture. Thematically, the focus was, as was to be expected, on the Nile and the climatic and hydro-logical contexts were brought closer to us. A key factor here is the irrigation of agricultural land and the necessary technical designs to achieve the highest possible efficiency. Then we were led through the Faculty and could look our Egyptian classmates a little over the shoulder. Newly equipped computer labs were shown us proudly and three craftsmen from the hydromechanics laboratory could show us their workshop.

After a rich and tasty lunch, followed by other insightful presentations on the current priorities of the faculty, Professor Khaled Hamed gave us an insight into the subject of the Grand Ethi-opian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a currently under construction standing gigantic dam on the border of Ethiopia to Sudan. This project has far-reaching effects on the hydrological regime of the downstream areas (Sudan and Egypt) and therefore bears great potential for conflict and will remain a quarrelsome issue in the future. Professor Hamed represented mainly the Egyptian attitude and their interests on this major project. However, a representation of the Ethiopian side would have been extremely interesting as well.

Figure 10: Visiting a Lecture, Cairo University

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Subsequently Dr. Mohammed Abou-Elhaggag presented us the current efforts of international scientific co-operation of the countries in the Eastern Nile region. Emphasis is placed on pro-ducing a common knowledge standard, which is based mainly on the exchange of scientific information and the holding of workshops and internships. Through this exchange some mod-eling programs have been developed for the entire Nile region, which for example, investigate the influence of climate change or optimization problems. A final presentation called our attention on this with many interesting topics well-filled day. Dr. Yehya Imam showed his work to his doctor degree in Canada. There he studied the natural oscillations in lakes and the layer structure of them. Dr. Imam applies this acquired knowledge now in current research projects on lakes in Egypt. Finally, we took the opportunity to walk to the main campus, although our caregivers were at first not too excited about it. The combination of youth, student education and military dictator-ship makes universities often to places of civil disobedience. For this reason, a dozen black-clad "Officers" were on the spot. But to our eyes the whole scenario appeared more interesting than threatening. And after we had passed through the security gates to the campus, we were able to convince us of the beauty of Cairo University. Something that we students of the Tech-nical University of Munich are almost completely missing.

Thursday, 30th of October, 2014:

National Water Resources Center (NWRC) On Thursday, 30.10.2014, our group visited the National Water Resources Center (NWRC) that belongs to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI). There were several presentations concerning the water resources management in Egypt, the pressures on the available water resources, the conflicting interests, and the alternatives to deal with all the water related problems. The majority of the presentations was related to the Wadi El Natroun project that is presented on the following. Afterwards, we visited the hydrochemistry lab that is really well equipped and has a high potential. Finally, we had a look at the model of a newly planned dam.

Figure 11: Visiting the hydromechanics laboratory, Cairo University

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Throughout the day, emphasis was put on the pressures on water resources in Egypt. The variety of the related problems was presented in an attempt to underline the necessity of a sustainable solution. Among others, the applicability of the TUM Shaft Power Plant in Egypt was discussed. Despite consisting an ecological and economical hydropower innovation, the TUM Shaft Power Plant is not easily applicable in Egypt because of mainly economic reasons, e.g. construction costs. Its application is easier in case that there is an already existing infrastructure. Further-more, the local community has set other priorities, i.e. satisfy the water demand for all users. Consequently, gaining the profit of the ecological advantages of this construction seems to be of secondary importance at the moment. It is more than obvious that the two countries face currently completely different problems in terms of water resources. On the one hand, Germany aims to improve the ecological quality of the water resources, while on the other hand, Egypt strives to find a solution to match water supply and demand. This does not imply of course that Egypt does not face challenges re-garding water quality, but is to emphasize the major challenge of water quantity and particularly water shortage. However, maintaining a good ecological quality of the water bodies is of vital importance to the whole ecosystem and cannot be ignored because of the high costs. A compromise between cost and good ecological status has to be found in order to achieve the most sustainable water resources management.

Figure 12: Hydromechanics Laboratory, National Water Resources Center

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Saturday, 1st of November, 2014:

Solar Power Activities in Wadi El Natroun Station

A Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV) Solar Station with maximum total capacity of 31 kW was established in Wadi El Natroun. The location of the station is presented in Figure 1. The aim of the project was to investigate water consumption and water requirements for agricultural purposes in sandy soils. In detail, special focus was given on the possibility of running a deep aquifer well by solar energy to raise the groundwater for agricultural purposes. To ensure that the independent irrigation network is continuously stable and resilient, a pond is required. Hence, the pump is powered by solar energy and is supposed to be able to run independently from the power grid. The station’s principle should be applicable in remote areas as well that have no or difficult access to the power grid.

Groundwater is pumped from the deep aquifer to a reservoir pond (600m3). Water is stored for up to 3 days and is used for the irrigation system. The ponds serve as well as fishponds for aqua farming purposes. Furthermore, the operation of a water desalination unit is considered as well. The aim is to reduce the salinity of water that is about 1200 ppm. During our visit to the site on Saturday, 01.11.2014, we had a tour throughout the facilities including the photovoltaics solar station, the surface and the submersible pumps, the water tank for water storage as well as the water desalination unit. The excursion to the project set-up improved our understanding of the project concept as we had the chance to find ourselves in the actual environment. Although the project set-up had been out of run for a while, it was still a valuable experience. Whereas, it would have been favorable to design such a project for a longer time scale, the existing installation could be used for other projects in the future.

Figure 12: Location, Wadi El Natroun Station

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The idea of reducing water resources losses through multiple purposes usage of a water unit has a good potential but has to be further developed. The applicability of this new technology in other areas as well as its economic feasibility has still to be studied since there are some uncertainties. For example, it was not possible to estimate the price of a similar project in large scale application. Moreover, using groundwater from the deep aquifer was not really sustainable as a concept, and it would have been more reasonable to use a nonconventional source for water. It is well worth mentioning though, that integrated aquaculture in desert regi-ons should be further encouraged especially in combination to nutritiously rich water thanks to the various fertilizers.

Figure 13: Solar Power, Wadi El Natroun Station