Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sweilem, met with Axel Wabenhorst, the Australian Ambassador to Cairo, on Monday to discuss ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the field of water resources.
The meeting focused on building upon a previous agreement between the two sides in May 2023, where it was agreed to cooperate on updating gates to audit the water distribution process. This agreement included a memorandum of understanding signed between the Ministry, Elsewedy Electric company, and the Australian company Rubicon Water to implement an experiment on the Qased Canal to update the gates located on the canal.
The discussions also covered a range of areas for potential collaboration, including sustainable water management, groundwater management, groundwater reservoir charging, drought risk management, and training and capacity building. Sweilem expressed Egypt’s desire for Australia to provide training opportunities for Egyptian irrigation engineers to benefit from Australian technology and expertise in dealing with water scarcity and utilizing renewable energy in water-related fields.
The meeting also addressed the shared challenge of climate change and its negative impacts on various countries around the world. Both Egypt and Australia have experienced extreme climate phenomena in recent years, with Egypt facing drought and Australia experiencing wildfires. Sweilem underscored the importance of intensifying national efforts in all countries in the field of adaptation to climate change.
He invited Australia to participate in the AWARe initiative, which aims to implement projects to adapt to climate change, specifically highlighting the possibility of Australia supporting the initiative within the desalination track led by the United Nations Development Program.
