Egypt’s Parliament approved on Saturday the appointment of Professor of Sustainable Development and Water Resources Management at the American University in Cairo (AUC) Hani Sewilam as the new Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation in a Cabinet reshuffle.
Sewilam succeeded Mohamed Abdel Aty, who held the position from March 2016 until August 2022.
Besides working as the academic director of the department of engineering hydrology and the managing director of the UNESCO chair in hydrological changes and water resources management at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, Sewilam is also the founding director of both the Centre for Sustainable Development and the MSc in Sustainable Development Programme at the AUC.
Sewilam also holds a PhD in in Water Resources Management from Aachen University in Germany, an MSc in Environmental and Irrigation Engineering from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, a diploma in Water Engineering from Zagazig University in Egypt, and a Bachelor’s in Environmental and Irrigation Engineering from the same university.
The newly appointed irrigation minister was part of the Egyptian committee running the negotiations on the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
He has more than 25 years of academic and professional experience in the fields of sustainable development, water resources management, water-energy-food nexus, desalination, and capacity building.
Sewilam also worked for the Egyptian National Water Research Centre as a researcher and coordinator for development projects with several UN organisations.
