A national campaign to save water has been launched by Mustafa Madbouli, Prime Minister and Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, under the slogan “Every drop makes a difference”.
Dr Madbouli stressed the importance of discontinuing prevalent practices that lead to the waste of large quantities of water. He pointed out to the necessity of making the public aware of Egypt’s water predicament. Whereas, he said, the country’s water supply remains constant or might even be dwindling, the rapidly growing population requires more water. This means, Dr Madbouli said, that Egypt is on the verge of water shortage. Hence the need to rationalise the use of water.
Mamdouh Raslan, Chairman of the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW), said that the campaign slogan denotes that even the smallest amount of water saved counts. “This is the sort of awareness we need to spread,” Mr Raslan said. He pointed out that the campaign was intended to foster a community dialogue about rationalising water consumption, so that the issue would gain top priority on public interest.
According to Mr Raslan, the campaign aims at informing people of common behaviour and practices that lead to water waste, and how the attitude towards water consumption ought to change. Saving water, he said, would directly translate into lower water consumption bills.
Since the awareness campaign, Mr Raslan said, primarily targets Egypt’s young, it has been designed by young persons through a competition launched by the HCWW in 2017 for media students
in Egyptian universities.
Mr Raslan added that the campaign has generated remarkable interaction since it was launched on social media. On the ground, he said, meetings and seminars will be organised nationwide to spread awareness, in collaboration with the Ministries of Endowments, Education, Environment, Culture, Youth and Sports, as well as with Al-Azhar and the Coptic Church.
Watani International
16 June 2018
