Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sweilam, held a meeting with heads of the ministry to follow up on the position of the “Project to Enhance Adaptation to Climate Change in the North Coast and the Nile River Delta,” and to review the proposed legal, institutional and regulatory framework for integrated management of coastal areas.
Sweilam stressed the importance of having this framework for integrated management of coastal areas, to maximize the benefit from existing and future development projects in coastal areas, stressing the ministry’s keenness to activate this framework in cooperation with the relevant ministries, within the framework of the ministry’s vision to develop coastal areas sustainably.
The minister also stressed the importance of taking serious measures to deal with water and climate issues by implementing projects on the ground to adapt to climate changes, such as beach protection projects, and preparing plans for the integrated management of coastal areas to preserve the investments and natural resources existing there while expanding the use of nature-based solutions and low-cost technologies.
Sweilam pointed out the importance of integrating local communities into projects implemented using environmentally friendly technologies to ensure the sustainability of these projects, noting the success achieved by Egypt in this field through the project.
The “Project to Strengthen Adaptation to Climate Change in the North Coast and the Nile River Delta” is funded by a grant from the Green Climate Fund in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, amounting to $31.40m, with lengths of up to 69 kilometres in five coastal governorates: Port Said, Damietta, Dakahlia, Kafr El-Sheikh and Beheira.
The project aims to confront rising sea levels and severe weather phenomena, protect citizens, facilities, and agricultural lands, and establish monitoring stations on the Mediterranean Sea to follow changes in waves, winds, and sea levels as a result of climate change, as well as developing an integrated management plan for coastal areas along the northern coast of Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea.
