Sisi ratifies deal to fund Bahr al-Baqar sewage treatment plant

CAIRO – 2 May 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ratified a loan agreement between Egypt and Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to fund building Egypt’s largest sewage water treatment plant in Bahr al-Baqar.

As per the agreement, Kuwaiti Fund to provide Egypt 50 million Dinar Kuwait (US $ 164.4 million). Sisi’s decree was published in the state’s official gazette Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya to come into force.

To mitigate water shortage that Egypt suffers from. The government will build the plant to treat sewage and agricultural wastewater of the longest drain (Bahr al-Baqar 1 drain), east of Suez Canal.

The 106-kilometer drain of Bahr al-Baqar starts from Dakahlia governorate to Sharqia, Ismailia to the last governorate of Port Said; the longest part locates in Sharqia governorate.

Egypt suffers from an annual 21 billion cubic meters gap between water consumption and production. The consumption reached 110 billion cubic meters, while Egypt currently has 60 million cubic meters annually, announced Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Atti in October 2018.

Despite the government's efforts to save every drop of water as the country faces water scarcity, 98.4 million Egyptians still live under the poverty water line by 50 percent, below the international line of 1,000 m3.