Massive wastewater treatment plant to be launched in June 2022 in Egypt's Hamam District

CAIRO – 27 September 2021: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi revealed Monday that a massive wastewater treatment plant will be completed in June 2022 in Hamam District western Egypt in order to reclaim and irrigate 1.5-2 million feddans in New Delta.

That was while inaugurating via video-conference Bahr Al Baqar Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is the world's largest, while attending a ceremony held on that occasion in Port Said, a Suez Canal governorate.

Land Reclamation

Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation said that Mahsama and Bahr Al Baqar wastewater treatment plants serve the cultivation of 600,000 feddans in North and Middle Sinai. Of those, more than 400,000 have already been reclaimed through Mahsama.

"Adding other cultivated lands located dispersedly in the peninsula, Sinai is estimated to house 675,000 feddans of agricultural lands," the minister underscored.

President Sisi commented saying, “the reclamation of 500,000 feddans in Sinai has cost LE150-160 billion acquired through loans...That’s why it’s crucial to maintain existing” canals and Nile mainstream.

"The cost of reclaiming 100,000 in Sinai is around LE2 billion because of digging irrigation and wastewater canals, extending them beneath the Suez Canal, and introducing necessary infrastructure," the president stated.

Agriculture minister pointed out that that the sector’s contribution in the GDP is 15 percent and employs 25 percent of Egypt’s laborers.

Bahr Al Baqar

The cost of the plant is LE20 billion, and its daily capacity is 5.6 million cubic meters to be used in the reclamation of 400 feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) in Sinai.

Bahr Al Baqar and other related projects, including roads, located on the western bank of the Suez Canal were implemented by 16 private companies, two national ones, and designed by a private consulting bureau.

Those plants garnered three titles from Guinness World Records, and they are the World’s Largest Water Treatment Plant; World’s Largest Sludge Plant; and, World’s Largest Ozone Generator. The attempts were put forward by Orascom Constructions and Arab Contractors. 

President Sisi also inaugurated via video-conference Ras Sidr Desalination Plant, and five lift and pumping stations.

President Sisi asserted that private investors are welcomed to benefit from such infrastructure saying, “You can cultivate as many feddans as you want in Sinai.”