Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sweilam met Wednesday with Mohamed El-Orabi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, and members of the Council. During the meeting, the position of bilateral cooperation projects between Egypt and African countries in general and the Nile Basin countries in particular was reviewed. The work of the African Water Ministers Council (AMCAW) was also reviewed under the current Egyptian presidency of the council. Sweilam stated that Egypt is looking forward to achieving more cooperation with all African countries to enhance economic integration and ensure prosperity in the African continent, and to make the water axis at the top of the issues that serve the development goals of the continent, with Egypt's willingness to harness its great experience in the field of water management for its African brothers. Sweilam explained that his ministry is already providing all forms of support to brotherly African countries through the implementation of various projects in many of these countries in the fields of establishing underground drinking water stations and rainwater harvesting dams to provide clean water to citizens for drinking, livestock breeding and domestic uses, and establishing stations to measure levels and dispositions. The minister also pointed to the establishment of centres for flood forecasting and early warning in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He added that Egypt is striving, during its current presidency of the African Water Ministers Council for a period of two years, to serve water issues in Africa at a time when the African continent is facing increasing effects of climate change and the associated floods, torrential rains, droughts and hurricanes more than ever before, affecting tens of thousands of people across the continent, and on the water services and infrastructure provided to them.
