The Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development Ahmed al-Maghraby said the Ministry is adopting scientific, well-studied and future-oriented planning to provide drinking water and sewage in all development projects. Speaking to the press yesterday, he said that the good planning adopted by the Ministry heeds the trends and pivots of current and future urban development. He then affirmed that that all State bodies must coordinate their work to achieve sustainable development by providing drinking water and sewage for housing and industrial development projects. "Any project will be included in the investment plan only after it has undergone all initial studies and after it has been studied how much it is needed" he affirmed, adding that these well-studied ways should avoid the formation of shantytowns in the future. "The Ministry has prepared a project regarding the new outlines to provide drinking water and sewage nationwide so as to keep abreast with development. "The project aims to define the needs of drinking water and sewage for the people until 2037" the minister added. Al-Maghraby pointed out that the ministry has entrusted the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater with overseeing the implementation of the drinking water and sewage outline in all Egyptian governorates and the city of Luxor. He also said that contracts have been concluded with 23 local specialized advising offices to prepare an outline for the governorate they have been entrusted with. He then pointed out that the outline for 25 governorates has been completed, while the plan for the remaining three governorates and Luxor is being finished. Al-Maghraby announced that the outline for these governorates, once adopted, would become the basis of the work plan of all state bodies. He also said this outline is divided into five-year plans until 2037, which would guarantee no conflict in the implementation of these projects. He also affirmed that this would allow making an optimal use of the part of the state budget allocated to drinking water, sewage and the protection of investments. Al-Maghraby explained that the preparation of the outline for any governorate includes four phases. The first phase includes an evaluation of the current situation and the preparation of a database concerning the governorate, the uses of the lands included in the governorate itself, and the number of inhabitants. The second phase includes the preparation of primary projects to improve the current service. The third phase consists in preparing the outline reports, including the timetable and a calculation of the future expected population and the main pivots of urban developments. Finally, the fourth phase includes using the plans in the best way possible to update the data according to future changes.
