Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aty held a meeting, on Monday, with a group of Dutch water experts to discuss the proposed cooperation programme funded by the Dutch government.
Abdel Aty stated that the cooperation programme includes rehabilitation of canals, modern irrigation, water quality control, integrated coastal zone management, and modernisation of groundwater wells.
The meeting also touched on other topics, such as the use of modern technology to model the management of water, in addition to a package of training courses to build the capacities of specialists and researchers in the field of water management.
The Dutch consultants also reviewed the great success achieved by the Dutch side in dealing with the massive flood wave that hit Europe last month, with minimal losses.
Both Egypt and the Netherlands are downstream countries and both are threatened by the dangers of climate change, especially in the river deltas mainly because of climate change impacts.
The Egyptian-Dutch Water Advisory Panel was established in 1976. Since then the panel has been working to support the exchange of experiences between the Egyptian and Dutch governments in the areas of planning and management of water resources.
The panel consists of representatives of ministers of Irrigation, Agriculture, and Housing and the Holding Company for Drinking Water of Egypt, and from the Dutch side; representatives of ministries of Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure, and the Netherlands Water Partnership.
