SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A senior Egyptian official said Monday the Nile Basin countries do not suffer from a water scarcity crisis but misuse of water resources.

Speaking at a press conference prior to a meeting of the Afro- Arab agricultural ministers slated for Tuesday, Saad Nassar, advisor to the Egyptian agriculture minister, said the Nile Basin countries enjoy huge water resources.

He said the quantity of rain water received by the upstream countries hits 1,800 billion cubic meters and that the quota of downstream countries (Egypt and Sudan) hits 73 billion cubic meters annually, 55 billion of which goes to Egypt and 18 billion goes to Sudan.

Nassar said a lot of the water resources in the Nile Basin countries are excessively wasted, underlining his county's keenness to make the best use of water for the benefit of both upstream and downstream countries.

A meeting of the agricultural ministers of the Nile Basin countries initially slated for February has been postponed due to a debate between the upstream and downstream countries over water quota.