CAIRO — Egypt’s Cabinet completed July 5 the drafting of the new water resources and irrigation bill, which calls for penalizing farmers who grow water-intensive crops, especially rice, outside the land plots authorized by the government on an annual basis.

The sanctions come amid a water crisis in Egypt, which is expected to exacerbate with the opening of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Article 32 of the bill states, “The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation specifies the surface areas and regions allocated for rice cultivation yearly by virtue of a decision issued by the minister. The decision will also determine the areas and regions allocated for growing water-intensive crops yearly. The growing of rice and crops that require high water levels in places other than those determined by the ministerial decision will be prohibited.”

Article 126 of the bill says that any person who violates the provisions of Article 32 will be sanctioned by imprisonment for a period of not more than six months and a fine not less than 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($112), and not more than 10,000 pounds ($560) for each acre or fraction of an acre or with any of those two sanctions. “The sanction will be doubled in case the violation is repeated,” the article adds.