Egyptian-Italian cooperation to enable sustainable water-related solutions
Egyptian-Italian cooperation to enable sustainable water-related solutions
“Enabling sustainable solutions… expanding water-related knowledge outcomes” was the title of the workshop, which was held at the headquarters of the Regional Training Center for Water Resources and Irrigation. This workshop was under the umbrella of the “Water Knowledge Project”, where its participants discussed the results and outputs of this project, and discussed future steps. In order to enhance the sustainability of cooperation with the Italian side to raise and build capabilities in the field of water.
Egyptian officials participated in this workshop, led by Dr. Hani Sweilem, “Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation,” who expressed his interest in this existing cooperation between the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the Italian Development Agency. Officials from the Italian side also participated in the workshop, including “Michael Carone,” “Italian Ambassador to Egypt,” and “Martino Melli,” “Director of the Italian Development Agency.”
This project, funded by the Italian Development Agency, contributes to training and building the capabilities of water specialists at the local and regional levels. The project also has objectives that are summed up in training engineers and technicians from Egypt and African countries. So that it will be the best preparationto address water issues.
As for the results of this Egyptian-Italian project, 426 Egyptian trainees were trained from the Ministries of Agriculture, Irrigation, Housing, Environment, and Electricity, in addition to 60 African trainees whose training came through 15 training programs.
These goals and objectives will be an important help in facing the challenges of the water sector in Egypt. These challenges are: population increase, climate change, and limited water resources, which do not exceed 60 billion cubic meters of water annually, with actual water needs estimated at about 114 billion cubic meters of water annually. Therefore, Egypt sought to expand the reuse of agricultural wastewater, as it recycled water along the network of canals and drains with about 21 billion cubic meters of water annually.
What the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation added regarding this promising development project is that Egypt has established three major stations – New Delta, Al-Mahsama, and Bahr Al-Baqar – that work to reuse water, with a total capacity of 4.80 billion cubic meters of water. Therefore, we must train and build the capabilities of workers to use water treatment technologies, as well as train the Ministry’s experts in the field of water desalination for mass food production. We must also train workers in this field to operate existing treatment plants.
Dr. Hani Sweilem explained – in addition to the above – that strengthening the world’s efforts – especially developing and African countries – in adapting to climate change is a duty for everyone, which is what called on Egypt to launch the “AWARe” initiative during the COP27 activities. Under the umbrella of this initiative, Egypt also established the “African Center for Water and Climate Adaptation,” which has had distinguished efforts, both on the technical and logistical levels.
In this context, Michael Carone expressed his country’s desire to cooperate with Egypt to strengthen the water sector, especially water treatment and reuse, based on the water challenges that Italy is currently facing. Praising what Egypt has accomplished in the past stage at the level of the water sector.
For his part, Martino Meli explained the importance of training and the role of capacity building inaddressing water challenges, which requires implementing water governance principles; So that we can confront the problem of water scarcity, pointing out that the Italian Development Agency is working to support the Regional Training Center with all its expertise and technology.
Not only that, but Dr. Hani Sweilem – Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation – honored trainees in two existing training courses within the “Water Knowledge Project”; The first: “Joint Water Management” course, in which 23 African trainees and 10 Egyptian trainees from the Ministries of Irrigation, Electricity, Environment, and Agriculture participate. The other: the course “Environmental Risk Management, Flood Management, and Environmental Hydrology in Arid and Semi-arid Areas,” with the participation of 17 trainees from different ministries.
It is worth noting that the “Italian-Egyptian Water Training Program – Water Knowledge” project seeks to build the capabilities of workers in the water sector, using this to develop, improve and raise the efficiency of the infrastructure of the headquarters of the Regional Training Center for Water Resources and Irrigation, as well as its many accessories, which are: computers – halls – simultaneous translation devices – language laboratories – technical assistance for the training process – audio systems – display devices Technical.
In addition, the “Italian-Egyptian Water Training Program – Water Knowledge” project works to develop training and teaching curricula, improve trainees’ administrative skills in accordance with international standards, as well as prepare practical training curricula in the field of modern water resources management, paying attention to the requirements for adaptation to climate change, supporting plans to activate technological techniques in the face of water scarcity, and working to develop a system for measuring the desired impact of training programs; In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Egypt and the whole world.
