CAIRO – Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hani Sweilam said Monday Egypt’s co-operation with African countries is built on the basis of brotherhood and exchange of experience.
This came during the minister’s meeting with Madagascar’s Minister of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Ravokatra Fidiniavo and his accompanying delegation, as well as Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Praveen Agrawal and Head of the WFP in Madagascar Pasqualina Di Sirio to discuss bilateral co-operation in the water resources domain.
The minister expressed keenness on boosting cooperation between Egypt and Madagascar in the field of water resources, stressing that this meeting is an important opportunity to strengthen co-operation among world countries to discuss means of dealing with water-related issues in a way that helps achieve Water and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He further underlined that Egypt has great and distinguished expertise in the field of Rainwater harvesting (RWH) and protection against the danger of torrential rains and in the rational management of groundwater.
For his part, Minister Fidiniavo affirmed his country’s keenness to foster cooperation with Egypt in all fields, particularly in the water resources domain.
During the meeting, the two sides agreed on outlining a proposal for a memorandum of understanding between the two countries for co-operation in the field of water resources and irrigation, which includes transferring Egyptian expertise in the fields of RWH and groundwater management to Madagascar.
They also agreed on arranging visits by experts from the Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry and the National Water Research Center to Madagascar to identify the challenges on the ground and to develop plans and proposals to deal with them.
Sweilam also invited Minister Fidiniavo and his accompanying delegation to participate in the 5th edition of Cairo Water Week, set for October.
For his part, Country Director of the World Food Program (WFP) Praveen Agrawal voiced the WFP’s readiness to coordinate with the two sides in reaching a co-operation protocol to benefit from the distinguished Egyptian expertise and transferring it to African countries.
He lauded the Egyptian State’s great efforts in serving farmers and supporting the water user associations.
He also expressed his appreciation of Egypt for organizing the Cairo Water Week and the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), set for the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh in November.
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