Assem El-Gazzar, Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, meet with the World Bank members, at the conclusion of the activities of the joint mission of the World and Asian Infrastructure Investment Banks to follow up on the results-based sustainable sanitation services program in rural areas in its first and second phases “SRSSP – PforR”, Invest-Gate reports.

El Gazzar stresses that the success achieved in the sustainable sanitation services program in rural areas is due to the World and Asian Infrastructure Investment Banks, as well as the great experience of the program’s team, good planning and management and follow-up of all implementation stages.

Moreover, a unit has been established to manage (PMU) program in the Ministry of Housing and sub-units have been established to manage (PIUs) program in drinking water and sanitation companies in the targeted governorates.

The Minister discusses the plan for seawater desalination, which is prepared to help in providing the water needs of the national development projects that being implemented in all coastal areas of Egypt until 2050 divided into 6 phases (5-year phase) with a capacity of 6.4 mn m3/day at a cost of 134 EGP bn, in coordination with all concerned authorities from the various ministries.

Further, he points out that the national strategy for the drinking water and sanitation sector is currently being prepared, which includes a methodology for involving the private sector in the growth of the utilities sector and access to services to all citizens, in cooperation with all the Egyptian authorities, besides the safe reuse of treated water and conversion into energy.

The World Bank team praises the performance of (PMU) and its effective role in building the capacity of drinking water and sanitation companies, as it is planned to end all household connections for the 1st phase of the program in March 2023 with 167,000 home connections, in addition to the implementation of 49 contracts, while 18 contracts are offered in the 2nd phase of the program to service 178,000 home connections.