CAIRO, Aug 12, 2018 - President Abdel Fattah El Sisi opened on Sunday the New Assiut Barrages, a major a hydroelectric project to enhance development in a wide area of Upper Egyptian governorates. The president also inaugurated the Sohag Museum which underwent renovation works. And through videoconferencing, President Sisi commissioned a solar-powered project of 25 underground water wells in the Dakhla area of the country's southwestern governorate of the New Valley. The New Assiut Barrages project and its hydroelectric power station are part of a plan to enhance development in the country's southern governorates. Welcoming the President upon his arrival were Prime Minister Dr. Moustafa Madbouli, Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki and a number of cabinet ministers and senior state officials. The inauguration of the project took place in the presence of a group of young people and engineers who participated in the implementation of the project. At the start of the ceremony, the Head of the High Dam and Aswan Water Reservoir Authority, Engineer Hussain Galal, gave a presentation of the barrages implementation and components, highlighting that a major advantage of the project's hydroelectric station is the minimisation of carbon emissions and the optimisation of environment-friendly specifications. In a following presentation, the project's control and operation room director, Engineer Mahmoud Abdul-Aleem, noted that the highest world standards have been observed in designing the barrages as well as in manufacturing its equipment and implementing construction works. The manufacturing of the barrages' gates in Egypt and by Egyptian hands is a source of pride, Eng Abdul-Aleem said in his presentation. In a statement to the inauguration ceremony of the barrages, Administrative Control Authority Chief Mohamed Erfan hailed the accomplishment of the project as a result of expedited action by the state to draw up the strategic directions that enable it to utilise modern technology in rationlaising, renewing and raising the capacity of existing water resources. The barrages and attached hydroelectric power station will meet the needs of the five governorates of Assiut, Menya, Beni Suef, Fayyum and Giza of irrigation water by improving the irrigation conditions for a total of 1.65 million feddans, Erfan said, adding that the project has cost nearly LE6.5 billion. The state adopted an ambitious economic reform programme which gained the support of the Egyptian people in reflection of their confidence in the political leadership and their conviction that the path for progress and providing better future for upcoming generations requires making sacrifices, Erfan said. The implementation of the programme started through a package of monetary and financial reforms that are now beginning to fructify, Erfan said. Representing the programme's favourable results, he added, are the decrease in the state's public budget deficit, the stabilisation of the exchange rate, the elimination of the foreign exchange black market and the improvement in the performance of the balance of trade. Assiut Governor Yasser el-Desouki said that the inauguration of the New Assiut Barrage and its hydraulic power plant is considered a historical event for the governorate as it is one of the largest national projects currently carried out by the state as part of its plan to develop Upper Egyptian governorates. Also on Sunday, President Sisi inaugurated the National Sohag Museum which has been renovated at an aggregate cost of some LE72 million. The museum which spans an area of 950 metres hosts six showrooms and about 1,000 artefacts, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said in a statement to event. The Ministry of Antiquities, he said, has managed over the past two years to re-open the Malawi Museum which was destroyed by terrorists in 2013 and was re-opened in 2016. He pointed out that Sohag governorate hosts 60 archeological sites.
