The Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW) requires a total of EGP 70bn to complete sanitation infrastructure across Egypt, said the HCWW Chairman Mamdouh Raslan on Monday during a workshop organised by the company in cooperation with the Water and Wastewater Management Programme of GIZ company. The workshop was attended by 20 NGOs and civil society organisations. Raslan stressed the important role NGOs play in spreading awareness among citizens and providing them with the basic information concerning the water and sanitation sector. The main approach undertaken by GIZ to implement the programme includes improving human resources in the water and wastewater sector by introducing a standardised training and certification system, known as the Management and Technical Career Path, and a new staff recruitment procedure. A number of projects are being implemented in Egypt in order improve water and sanitation services. The European Union announced last week that it will partially fund a project that aims at "improving the capacity" of the HCWW to develop sustainable high water and waste water services to support the country's economic and environmental developments. A project supporting the "institutional capacity building" of the Egyptian Water and Waste Water Regulatory Agency will also be implemented through the establishment of an improved regulatory system and resource management processes. The regulatory functions that will be implemented include: drinking water quality reporting and auditing, customer services, water company performance measures and licensing.
