(Photo Public domain)
The total investments for developing 151 villages amounted to EGP 4.3bn in cooperation with some ministries and agencies, according to Minister of Local Development Adel Labib.
The villages included in the first stage of “Geographical Targeting for The Most Needy Villages” project in governorates of Sharqeya, Minya, Assiut, Sohag and Qena.
In 2008, the government scaled up the Family Health Services (FHS) programme to include 1,153 primary healthcare facilities in the 1,000 lowest income villages. This falls under under the “Geographical Targeting for the Most Needy Villages for Development and Investment Programme, 2008-2018″. The project fund amounted to $ 75m from the World Bank.
In a press statement, Labib said the project aims at improving drinking water and sanitation, improving health services, improving the quality of basic education and providing job opportunities for young people. It will also improve the environmental situation, deal with waste, strengthen road networks to connect villages and promote youth and sports services.
“The Ministry of Local Development has contributed to developing 151 villages in the first phase of the project, through replacing and renewing 15 local units headquarters, supply of 24 fire engines, paving internal roads in villages with a length of 102km and covering canals on a length of 10km,” added Labib.
“In the context of the project, EGP 26m were provided to be used in soft loans for youth and EGP 20m were provided to create integrated social services centres, in addition to providing EGP 96m to improve the environmental situation in villages,” he said.
The minister revealed that the total cost of these projects carried out by the ministry totalled EGP 522m.
Labib noted that the Ministry of Environment has established five tight landfills for waste and six stations to develop two factories, in addition to providing cleaning equipments and planting trees with a cost of EGP63m.
He added that the Ministry of Social Solidarity provided EGP 127m to build and develop 28 social centres to provide monthly assistance to 58,000 families and funding developmental projects for 8,823 families and coordination with NGOs to provide services to 225,053 low-income households.
“The Ministry of Transport was granted EGP 6m to develop and raise the efficiency of 28 train barriers and provide them with guidance signs for roads,” said Labib. “The Ministry of Housing established 4,312 housing units and completed the detailed urban plans for villages.”
The minister concluded that sewage works are currently being completed in 10 villages with a cost of EGP 2.5bn.
