Egypt has opened the Irrigation Museum in the New Capital, preserving the country’s rich history of water management, engineering innovation and institutional expertise while reinforcing efforts to modernise the sector and promote sustainable development.
Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sewilam inaugurated the museum on Tuesday.
The museum chronicles the history of one of Egypt’s oldest state institutions and highlights its continuing contribution to managing the country’s water resources and supporting national development.
Addressing the ceremony, Sewilam said the museum was more than a cultural or archival initiative, describing it as a strategic step to preserve the ministry’s institutional memory and accumulated expertise for future generations.
He said the collection documents decades of scientific and engineering achievements through historical documents, maps, engineering drawings and artefacts that trace the evolution of water management in Egypt.
The minister said the project supports the ministry’s Second Generation Water System 2.0 strategy, which focuses on modernising water governance, expanding the use of digital technologies, promoting innovation and scientific research, strengthening human capacity and preserving institutional knowledge as a foundation for sustainable development.
He added that the museum would serve as a source of knowledge and inspiration, helping to raise public awareness of water issues and demonstrating how lessons from the past can help address future challenges.
Sewilam also noted that the ministry oversees several other museums, including the Revolution Museum, the Children’s Water Science Museum in Qanater El Khairiya and the African Cultural Museum in Aswan, while plans are under way to establish a new museum at the Egyptian Survey Authority.
The inauguration was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir, Minister of Local Development and Environment Manal Awad, Minister of Awqaf Osama Al-Azhari, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ambassador Mohamed Abou Bakr, Grand Egyptian Museum Authority Chief Executive Ahmed Ghoneim, artist Dr Mohamed Khamis, alongside representatives of the European Union in Egypt, the American University in Cairo, diplomatic missions and senior ministry officials.
