Egypt Watch

Egypt’s PM: We have entered a phase of severe water poverty

The Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, announced that Egypt has entered a phase of severe water poverty. He noted that the government had devoted massive resources and hundreds of billions to benefit from every drop of water.

Madbouly added, in the press conference on the launch of the National Programme for Structural Reforms, on Tuesday, that “the state is treating sewage, agricultural and industrial wastewater, and desalinating sea water, all of that to face the limited water resources.”

The Egyptian Prime Minister stressed that the state is pulling out all stops to confront the Renaissance Dam crisis. He added, “Egypt is one of the highest countries in using water, and one of the highest in reusing, recycling, and treating it.” He stressed that “the state uses all its resources to exploit every drop of water.”

Egypt is concerned about the impact of the dam on its supplies of Nile water, on which it depends for 97 per cent on drinking and irrigation water.

During the past weeks, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi warned Ethiopia against “compromising a drop in Egypt’s waters because all options are open.”