Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aty met on Wednesday with Alessandro Fracassetti — the new representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Egypt — to discuss the position of the current and future activities of the projects funded by the Green Climate Fund in Egypt. The minister noted the existing cooperation between the irrigation ministry and the UNDP in the 'Project to Strengthen Adaptation to Climate Changes in the North Coast and the Nile Delta', which is still undergoing implementation. The project is funded by a grant from the Green Climate Fund in cooperation with the UNDP at a value of $31.40m. It aims to confront the rise in sea levels and severe weather phenomena that affect critical low coastal areas and cause sea water intrusion, with lengths of up to about 69 km in five coastal governorates — Port Said, Damietta, Daqahleya, Kafr El Sheikh, and Beheira — in addition to establishing monitoring stations at different depths inside the Mediterranean Sea to obtain data related to waves and natural disasters. Abdel Aty explained that this project is part of the beach protection projects that the ministry is implementing with the aim of facing the effects of climate change, protecting facilities worth about EGP 200 bn, in addition to acquiring areas of land, and working to stop the decline of the beach line in areas that suffer from severe erosion. On his part, Fracassetti expressed his interest in continuing and strengthening cooperation between the two sides, praising the efforts made by the ministry in the field of adapting to the negative impacts of climate change.
