Egypt's Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel-Ati arrived on Thursday in Kinshasa to take part in the inauguration of a weather warning centre and to hold talks with Congolese officials on means of developing cooperation between both African countries in the field of water management. Abdel-Ati was received by Congolese Vice Prime Minister Eve Bazaiba and a number of high-ranking officials in the Congolese government, in addition to the Egyptian ambassador to the Congo Hamdi Shaaban. The visit reflects Egypt's keenness to achieving the maximum levels of cooperation and coordination between the two countries to attain sustainable development and raise the standard of living of citizens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Abdel-Ati said upon his arrival. Bazaiba, who also serves as the minister of environment, expressed her hope to exchange points of view and promote cooperation between Cairo and Kinshasa. The new centre, carried out via an Egyptian grant to maximise the DR Congo's use of water resources and boost its capability to manage these resources, will be concerned with studying climate change in the DR Congo. The centre will contribute to protecting Congolese citizens from probable sudden climate disasters and floods, the statement added. The Congolese staffers at the centre have been trained by experts from the Egyptian irrigation ministry on dealing with rain and flood forecasts and aerial imagery systems, the Geographic Information Systems (GIS), hydrologic modelling, and writing specialised technical reports, according to a previous statement by the irrigation ministry.
