CAIRO: Mohammed Nasr el-Din Allam, Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation told reporters last week that the Egyptian government has granted the government of Southern Sudan $300 million as a continuation of Egyptian efforts towards the Nile Basin Countries, particularly Sudan. The grant comes as a part of the projects in the south, and the share of cooperation projects and technical cooperation between Egypt and the southern Sudanese government in the management of water resources and irrigation, which has amounted to $26.6 million. Allam added that this grant comes amid Egypt's continued efforts to “develop and improve the economic, social, environmental and the health level of the citizen of South Sudan, and that to maximize the utilization of the grant allocated to the field of water resources has been channeled into projects of cleaning waterways, and the establishment of river development with a budget of $12 million, which would improve the navigation and commercial traffic between the southern cities, as well as the draft tube-wells and pools of water, which aims to drill 30 wells underground, to provide safe drinking water with a budget of 5 million dollars.” Allam added that among the projects to be implemented by the Egyptian government is a project to prepare these plants for leveling and construction with a budget of $5.7 million, “which works to improve the measurements and the provision of hydrological data for the reconstruction projects of southern Sudan, as well as the draft feasibility study for construction of a multi-purpose dam with a budget of one million dollars, which works to provide electrical energy-saving and water storage to provide water needs throughout the year and training project with a budget of $600,000, which includes training and preparation of staff in many areas, as well as the provision of scholarships in the Egyptian universities.” The cooperation projects also include a range of service projects such as creating a central laboratory for water quality analysis with a budget of $300,000, which the ministry said “is the first of its kind in the south, and provides the latest equipment for laboratories.” BM
