The Deputy Minister of Housing meets with representatives of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to discuss advisory services for water desalination plants
Dr. Sayed Ismail, Deputy Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities for Infrastructure Affairs, met with representatives of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, to discuss the start of advisory services for preparing studies and designs required to put forward the implementation of some desalination plants targeted from the first five-year plan within the strategic plan for desalination until 2050, in cooperation With the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the presence of representatives of the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Wastewater, the New Urban Communities Authority and the Ministry’s Project Management Unit (PMU), within the framework of the state ownership document that stipulated the implementation of desalination plant projects with the participation of the private sector, and in line with the decisions of The Council of Ministers that the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities and the Suez Canal Authority authorize the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to carry out the work of rehabilitating specialized contracting companies to implement the desalination plants included in the plan and to prepare the designs and tender documents for them, in cooperation with representatives of the Ministry of Housing and the Suez Canal Authority in preparation for the start of implementation work.
During the meeting, representatives of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development made a presentation on business start-up plans and the tasks required of consultants who were appointed through development partners to assist the Sovereign Fund of Egypt in preparing studies and designs required for stations. Representatives of consulting offices specialized in technical and legal fields also presented. And environmental and health, with a presentation to explain the mechanism for providing these services and the expected outputs of the initial and detailed studies in preparation for offering to qualified contractors to implement desalination plants under the private sector participation system.
Dr. Sayed Ismail pointed out the need to include technical studies in the focus of local manufacturing and study how to provide all the electromechanical tasks and membranes required to implement desalination plants locally without the need to rely on the international market for that, stressing that the studies include all the details that help attract the latest used and energy-saving technologies. At the same time, it achieves the lowest operating expenses, which contributes to reducing the cost of providing services and relying on new and renewable energy.
It is worth noting that 99 desalination plants with a total capacity of 1.21 million m3/day have been implemented, and 11 desalination plants with a total capacity of 228 thousand m3/day are being implemented, bringing the total capacity of the stations that have been and are being implemented to 1.44 million m3/day, and it is planned to reach about 10 million m3/day. / day of desalinated water through the implementation of the desalination strategic plan stations, which were prepared to cover the required needs of desalinated water in the coastal governorates until 2050, with a total capacity of about 8.85 million m3 / day, and the rehabilitation of about 17 local and international alliances has been completed through the Sovereign Fund of Egypt In cooperation with representatives of the Ministry of Housing and the Suez Canal Authority, in preparation for the start of implementation work in the desalination plants.
