President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has today 27 September inaugurated Bahr al-Baqar wastewater treatment plant in Port Said on the northern tip of the Suez Canal, some 170km northeast Cairo. With him were Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and a number of Cabinet ministers and officials.
Built at the cost of EGP20 billion with a production capacity of 5.6 million cubic metres of treated water per day, the new water treatment plant is the largest of its kind in the world. For this, it was awarded a Guinness World Record.
The triple-treated water produced in the plant comes from Bahr al-Baqar drainage canal, a canal that flows over 160 kilometres from Cairo through five other governorates carrying agricultural and sanitary waste which it used to drop into Lake Manzala, rendering it one of the most polluted in Egypt. The new water treatment plant will thus contribute to depolluting the lake and bringing it back as a haven for wildlife, while the treated water will be used to cultivate 400,000 feddans of land in Sinai.
The project thus achieves the double purpose of fulfilling the State’s national project to develop the Sinai Peninsula, and also enhance the optimal use of Egypt’s water resources. The project is being implemented by the Alliance the Arab Contractors and Orascom Construction, for the benefit of the Armed Forces’ Engineering Department.
The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development had during the planning of the 2020-2021 fiscal year agreed to pump EGP236 million into the National Authority for Drinking Water and Drainage, to go into financing the electricity to the water treatment plant of Bahr al-Baqar.
Earlier this year, the Alliance of the Arab Contractors and Orascom had officially applied with the Guinness World Record administration to be awarded the world’s largest plant of its kind, with a production capacity of 64.8 cubic metre per second.
During today’s ceremony, Ahmed Makled, chief executive manager of B Premium, the official partner of Guinness Records in Egypt handed representatives of the Arab Contractors/Orascom Alliance the Guinness Records certificate.
During the inauguration ceremony, President Sisi said that the amount of water flowing into Egypt is not much and is not likely to increase. He said the State is striving to develop water sources and facilities and set up new canals so as to preserve citizens’ quota of water and the needs of agriculture. Egypt is trying to raise the efficiency of water use and reduce water waste, the President explained, describing the water file as “a matter of national security for Egypt”. The country has to cultivate sufficient crops to meet people’s needs or else it will have to import the produce needed, exhausting its economy, the President said.
The President went on to warn that the State will no longer tolerate violations or encroachment on agricultural land or irrigation resources, vowing to wipe out such violations in six months through the help of the Interior Ministry, local governments, and the Armed Forces if needs be. Among the actions that can be taken against violators, the President warned, is to cut them out of subsidies on bread and other supplies. “Egypt has allocated EGP700 billion to secure a decent life for its people, so it will not accept transgression on State lands,” the President said, urging people to do their best alongside the government’s efforts.
The President also inaugurated through video conferencing water desalination plants in the Sinai cities of Nuweiba, Ras Sudr, Abu Zneima and Dahab. He also inaugurated pumping stations in Port Said and the Delta.
Two days ago, the President had reviewed the situation of another mega agricultural project, the New Delta project which envisions the cultivation of 2.2 million feddans of land.
Meeting Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, President Sisi reviewed strategic projects implemented by the Ministry nationwide, focusing on the electrical supply to the New Delta agricultural project and on connecting it to the national electricity grid.
Watani International
27 September 2021