Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sweilem, participated on Monday, in the high-level session entitled "Addressing Regional Water Challenges", held within the activities of the "Sixth Arab Water Forum" in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. During the discussions, Sweilem referred to the Egyptian efforts made to confront the challenges of limited water resources and climate change and to study the reliance on desalination as a tool to improve the sustainability of water resources and bridge part of the gap between resources and water needs.
The Minister of Irrigation stressed the importance of benefiting from the successful experiences of other countries in this field, such as Spain and Morocco, with the development of strategies that achieve maximum benefit from desalination at an appropriate cost and identifying available energy sources, and evaluating the economic and environmental aspects to achieve a balance between the material costs of desalination and the benefits gained.
Sweilem stressed the importance of the link between the concepts of water, food and energy, with the importance of applying this concept when dealing with surface and groundwater. He said that the ministry is looking into implementing innovative solutions that include the use of treated agricultural drainage water, developing sustainable groundwater and surface water management systems, recharging groundwater reservoirs, and providing technical support to farmers.
Egypt has also begun adopting an integrated approach policy in the field of water, energy, and food through coordination between the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of International Cooperation in projects to enhance cooperation between different sectors to achieve common goals through specific programs that maximize the use of available water resources.
