The Ministry of Housing signed a consultancy contract with the World Bank to finance the sustainable sewage services program in rural areas, reported Invest Gate.

Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly was in attendance for the agreement signing of the $550 million loan, to be paid back over 30 years, along with several other officials.

“The project aims to design and implement the first phase of the program to cover sanitation services in 155 villages spread over three governorates, ” said Randa Minshawi, the first Undersecretary of the Housing Ministry and the Head of the Projects Management Unit (PMU).

“The villages include the contaminated villages of Al-Salam Canal and the Rosetta Branch, which are about 53 villages in Sharqia, 94 villages in Dakahlia, and eight villages in Beheira. About 167,000 house connections will be carried out to serve about 833,000 people,” Minshawi explained.

The project will employ a unique mechanism, named the Program for Result,  applied for the first time in Egypt, whereby the disbursement of funds will be in accordance with the achievement of results. This depends on the number of household connections implemented.

The program also works to support and develop the  institutional system associated with the water and sanitation facilities, to achieve sustainable management of the sewage system, Minshawi further explained

“Community participation is essential to the success of the program, where people in the village are encouraged to donate spare lands. Land donated will be used for water pumping stations and sewage treatment,” said Sayed Ismail, Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Housing.