Egypt pushes for further water cooperation with South Sudan

Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Atty held a meeting, on Monday, to follow up on areas of bilateral cooperation with South Sudan.

During the meeting, Abdel Atty pointed out that the Egyptian-South Sudanese cooperation in water resources projects is considered a successful model for cooperation between Egypt and other African countries.

The meeting was held in the presence of: Ragab Abdel Azim, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and Supervisor of the Minister’s Office; Mamdouh Antar, Head of the Nile Water Affairs Sector; Mamdouh Hassan, Head of the Central Administration for Bilateral Cooperation Projects in the Nile Water Sector. 

Other attendees were Amr Fawzy, an engineer with the Technical Office of the Head of the Nile Water Affairs Sector Nile Water, and Amjad Salah El-Din, General Coordinator of Bilateral Cooperation Projects with Nile Basin Countries in the Nile Water Affairs Sector. 

Abdel Atty said that the two countries have cooperated for several years, during which many development projects were implemented that directly benefit the citizens of South Sudan. This was in a way that contributes to achieving sustainable development and raising the standard of living of citizens.

He added that Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has established six groundwater stations in the South Sudanese capital, Juba. This is in addition to seven other underground drinking water stations that were established in important government institutions in the capital, such as the main sports stadium and the College of Law. 

Additionally, a lifting unit was also installed to transfer river water to population centres near waterways in the city of Wau. The ministry has also taken part in preparing technical and economic feasibility studies for the multi-purpose Wau Dam project.