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Abstract
Exposure to contaminated food and water-borne diseases are common in Egypt. Deteriorating water quality has been an obstacle to the development of agricultural sector, where “[c]ontamination rates have reached unacceptable levels in some agricultural areas and have had negative effects on the ability of these areas to produce safe food acceptable to local inhabitants and suitable to export”, (MALR, 2009, p. 45). The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) estimates annual cost of using low quality water to be 1.8% of GDP (MWRI, 2005a). The study calibrates the single-country Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) STatic Applied General Equilibrium (STAGE 2) model to an extended and updated version of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Egypt 2012/13. The SAM has detailed accounts for the Egyptian agricultural and irrigation systems. Water quality indicators are incorporated using satellite accounts, allowing for modelling various agronomic features; e.g. water/land salinity, soil fertility and agricultural productivity. Furthermore, the SAM is augmented with multiple representative household types. The micro model is estimated based on the most recent household survey data for Egypt (i.e. Harmonized Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HHIES) 2015)) (OAMDI, Harmonized Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HHIES), 2017); and the most recent labour force survey data for Egypt (i.e. Harmonized Labor Force Surveys (HLFS) 2016), (OAMDI, Harmonized Labor Force Surveys (HLFS), 2017).