The Prime Minister: $50 billion to improve water quality in Egypt’s...

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly called for holding an open dialogue on the importance of cooperation between riparian countries to achieve optimal management of international river basins to achieve the desired development for all peoples without harming any of them, noting that Egypt strongly believes that cross-border cooperation is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development. Where water is the mainstay of achieving a number of sustainable development goals, enhancing resilience in the face of climate change, protecting basic human rights, as well as maintaining regional and international peace and security.

In his speech at the opening session of the fourth session of the Cairo Water Week, the Prime Minister added that the escalation of the water scarcity crisis is due to natural and human causes, the most important of which is the increase in consumption rates of renewable water resources, environmental deterioration, climate change, population increase, and giant projects that are being built to exploit international rivers in an ill-considered manner and without taking into account the importance of preserving on the safety and sustainability of international water resources.

Madbouly stressed that success in achieving the sustainable development goals is now gaining increasing importance, especially as the countries of the world are affected by climate changes, which impose very difficult challenges on us, to which the Corona pandemic was added, noting that Egypt realized a long time ago the inevitability of sound management of water resources, so it began to Implementation of an ambitious agenda for integrated water resources management.

He continued: It includes access to clean drinking water and sanitation and treatment of water scarcity through recycling, and Egypt is implementing the principle of integrated management of water management, including cooperation in the field of cross-border, and the government has sought since 2014 to make the water and sanitation sector more equitable and sustainable, In 2020, the coverage of safely managed drinking water reached 98% of citizens, while the percentage of safely managed sanitation increased from 50% to 65%. Improving sanitation services for rural areas represents a critical investment in the right to health and well-being and a vital component of poverty eradication.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the development of the Egyptian countryside aims to develop 4,500 villages at a cost of more than 40 billion dollars to eradicate poverty and provide basic services, adding: “The National Strategic Plan for Water Resources in Egypt also allocates 50 billion dollars to the areas of improving water quality, preserving it and developing new sources.” Modernizing and rehabilitating irrigation systems such as rehabilitating canals and watering cans and modern irrigation applications, as well as pumping large investments in reusing treated wastewater, improving water and desalinating water, to achieve the goal of eliminating hunger and doubling agricultural productivity.

The Prime Minister noted that Egypt’s efforts in these areas are hampered by a major challenge, which is the availability of water, commenting: “Given Egypt’s geographical location as an estuary in the Nile River Basin, ensuring access to safe, clean and sufficient water depends on effective cooperation in transboundary water resources in accordance with the principles of international law.” .