The World Bank is interested in participating in the "polluted villages' project" with $1bn in loans, Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly said Sunday. The loan will be used for the project in Al-Salam Canal in Upper Egypt, and the Rosetta branch of the Nile Delta. Madbouly noted that he met with World Bank officials, stressing the importance of speedily performing the lending process. Several international institutions have shown interest in participating in water and sanitation projects in villages. These have been most notably the World Bank, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, European donors and Russian and Chinese companies. Madbouly added that final designs of World Bank-funded sanitation projects in the villages of Assiut and Sohag have been concluded, amounting to $200m. Approximately three out of 20 houses have safe sanitation, according to the World Bank's former Egypt director Hartwig Schafer. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi approved in November 2014 a financial loan agreement, at a total value of €92m for a sanitation project in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate in northern Egypt. The agreement was concluded between the Egyptian government, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union (EU). In the same month, the UAE allocated EGP 1.8bn to finance 135 water sanitation projects in nine governorates in Egypt, according to Minister of State for Local Development Adel Labib. Around 25% of the total figure was provided to the Egyptian government as a first instalment. The Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW) requires a total of EGP 70bn to complete sanitation infrastructure across Egypt, according to HCWW Chairman Mamdouh Raslan.
