The Governor of Aswan, Magdy Hegazy, and the ambassador of Switzerland to Egypt, Markus Leitner, will inaugurate on Monday a project in Aswan city, which started in December 2012.
With a grant of CHF 5m—approximately EGP 40m—from the Swiss government, and EGP 5m from the Egyptian government, the project will improve potable water supply for 100,000 people in the informal settlement of Al-Nassereya.
The project aims to end Al-Nassereya’s predicament, a district which has long suffered from irregular and interrupted potable water supply. As of now, a pumping station, a ground reservoir, three kilometres of transmission pipelines, and 9.5 kilometres of rehabilitated networks have successfully been set up.
The project not only aims at providing potable water to the inhabitants of Al-Nassereya in an uninterrupted way, but it also has an awareness-raising side, as the government and the Aswan Water and Sanitation Company will be conducting sessions and activities to raise awareness within the elementary schools and the community of Al-Nassereya.
In this regard, Swiss ambassador Leitner expressed that “Switzerland is delighted to see this important initiative come to fruition. The new water system will not only improve the lives of many vulnerable Egyptian families in Aswan, but will also raise awareness on accountable water use. Switzerland has been highly committed to creating and implementing important projects in Aswan to support its people.”
The third positive side of the project is generating temporary jobs. Half of the labourers hired through local contractors to carry out excavation works in Al-Nassereya are from the local community.
The Aswan water project comes within the framework of Switzerland’s wider partnership with Egypt. Switzerland provides funding of around CHF 20m annually in development projects across Egypt in three domains: economic development and employment, democratic transition and human rights, and migration and protection.
