Irrigation Min.: Collaboration with Nile Basin countries yields results

CAIRO – 28 September 2018: Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Ati traveled to Kampala, Uganda on Sept. 26 to attend the closing of the Averting Flood Risks Project’s first phase in Kasese, Uganda.

The minister stated that he is pleased to be in the brotherly country and to attend the closing of the project’s phase one which was finalized in Feb. 2018.

The Egyptian minister was welcomed by the Ugandan Minister of Water and Environment Sam Cheptoris on Wednesday, Sept. 26. Wednesday’s meetings revolved around technical cooperation activities between Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and Uganda's Ministry of Water and Environment.

During the meeting in the Ugandan Ministry of Water, Abdel Ati referred to Kasese’s tragic history with floods, as it was subjected to many raging floods in the past 20 years, which come as a result of severe landslides in mountainous regions in the direction of residential areas, farms, Livestock and poultry, causing huge material and human losses.

Uganda sought Egypt’s assistance to limit the floods’ averts, which received immediate response from the Egyptian side. The ministry started to execute a project to protect the country’s citizens and properties within the framework of the technical cooperation between both countries.

A group of the Egyptian ministry’s experts were sent in a mission to examine the area and collect the required data to implement an urgent project to secure the country against flood dangers. The mission identified some high priority areas in grave danger.

A memorandum of understanding for the project was signed by both ministries in April 2016 in order for the project to be executed in several phases. The first phase was assigned to El-Mokawloon El-Arab (Arab contractors), one of the biggest Egyptian companies operating in Uganda and it officially started in March 13, 2017 and ended in Feb 2018, the minister of irrigation stated.

Ugandan Minister of Water and Environment Cheptoris expressed his pleasure with the technical cooperation between Egypt and Uganda in the fields of irrigation and water resources. He also commended the major technical expertise in the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources as they managed to put the floods’ water into use instead of being wasted, and causing losses.

Additionally, Cheptoris expressed the gratitude of Kasese’s citizens for the Egyptian government’s support to implement the project.

The Egyptian minister will visit the project’s location in Kases on Sept. 27; he will be accompanied by the Ugandan minister and the technical and guiding committees for the collaborative water projects between Egypt and Uganda to present the results of the committees’ meetings.

Abdel Ati stressed that these meetings come in the light of the standing collaboration between Egypt and Uganda to pursue the progress in the dual projects between both countries in the fields of irrigation and water resources.

This collaboration is represented in the memorandum of understanding signed in Jan. 2010 between both ministries to execute a number of vital projects worth $ 4.5 million. These projects include 75 boreholes in different areas in Uganda to provide drinking water, which were finalized in Dec. 2016.

Moreover, huge mechanical machines were exported to Uganda to be used in establishing the projects, especially the project of water containment dams to use rain water in providing drinking water for citizens, the containment dams' contract was signed with a Ugandan company in August 2017 and will be implemented soon.

Head of Nile Water Section Ahmed Bahaa el-Din stated that Egypt is always a source of technical assistance and expertise for Uganda. He added that this is obvious in the three developmental projects; The Egyptian-Ugandan Project to Resist Sea Grass, Controlling Sea Grass in Kyoga and Albert Lakes’ Project and the third project includes building five tanks to reserve rain water, building several boreholes and training Ugandan workers in the fields of water resources and irrigation.