Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aty held a meeting, on Monday, with the Egyptian delegation that visited Iraq early August. The meeting aimed to review the results of the visit and its recommendations to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the field of water resources management. A high-level delegation of the Ministry of Irrigation has visited Iraq to discuss bilateral cooperation. The delegation included Ragab Abdel Azim, the Undersecretary of Irrigation Ministry; Ayman El-Sayed, Head of Monitoring and Communication Affairs Sector; and Ibrahim Mahmoud, Head of Irrigation Development Sector. The delegation also included Jamal Qotb, the former Director of the Water Resources Research Institute; Imad Mahmoud, Head of the Central Department of Water Resources and Uses; Mahmoud Rafi, Director General of Studies and Research in the Reservoirs Sector; and Azza Bashandi, from the Technical Office of the Groundwater Sector. During the meeting, Abdel Aty stated that the visit to Iraq is one of the outcomes of the first meeting of the Egyptian-Iraqi Joint Technical Steering Committee in the field of water resources and irrigation, which was held on 6 June. The committee meeting resulted in an agreement to form a working group of Egyptian experts and technicians in various fields such as irrigation development, rainwater harvesting, monitoring and follow-up systems, and forecasting systems to visit Iraq. He explained that the working group's mission is discussing opportunities to enhance cooperation in the field of water management between the two countries, and conducting several field visits to reach a joint formulation of a clear work program between the two countries in accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in October 2020. Abdel Aty stressed the need to achieve the utmost levels of cooperation and coordination between the two brotherly countries to achieve the goals of the two peoples in sustainable development and the optimal management of limited water resources.
