Egypt co-operates with other Nile Basin countries in water resources management

Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation spoke about modernising infrastructure, introducing modern irrigation methods and promoting international cooperation. This is reported by Daily News Egypt, a partner of TV BRICS.

Hani Sweilem, head of the ministry, stressed that the relevant services inspected 47,000 water supply facilities, after which they started work to repair and optimise them. For example, they have modernised 45 pumping stations serving 2.9 million hectares of land. In addition, the ministry has embarked on modern irrigation methods, focusing on orchards and sugarcane farms.

Egypt is actively involved in joint projects with the Nile Basin countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and others), helping partners to build pumping stations, solar-powered groundwater extraction wells, river docks, surface reservoirs and rainfall forecasting centres.

The ministry has also supported initiatives of its foreign counterparts to control aquatic weeds, provide flood defence and train professionals. The ministry had implemented major projects to treat agricultural wastewater, reclaiming 351,000 hectares of land.

In addition to water management, the authorities had given priority to environmental protection: they had initiated the construction of 1,631 flood control structures with a total capacity of 391 million cubic metres of water.

The country made a significant contribution to the UN Water Conference and co-chaired the third interactive dialogue on water and climate together, the minister recalled.

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