The Egyptian Government has adopted a strategy of water management on the basis of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) including demand management and has been successful in supplying almost all of the population with drinking water, including a large part of the rural areas.

The need to protect resources has also resulted in the development of a sanitation policy and most cities and urban areas are equipped with the respective facilities. However, rural sanitation is still deficient.

An analysis of the current situation, organized by the Sustainable Water Integrated Management – Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) project and relating to wastewater strategies, revealed a number of weaknesses, namely:

• In rural areas, the development of sanitation is pronouncedly lagging behind vis-à-vis urban areas.
• The current institutional, regulatory and financial frameworks do not facilitate developments in the treated wastewater reuse sector, recognized by the Government as a potentially significant unconventional resource.  This is exacerbated by a lack of trained personnel, operators and stakeholders.
• The institutional responsibilities and mandates related to the fate of sewage sludge are not clear
• The rate of pollution charges paid by industrial polluters is low and not conducive to a voluntary mechanism to improve the situation.
• The governance of the sanitation sector as relates to investments is complex with a weak autonomy
• Participatory management is little developed, as far as the water sector is concerned.
• The tariffs currently applied on sanitation do not allow recovery.

This review of wastewater strategies and plans in Egypt also shows that progress can be achieved in:

• Participatory management and users’ involvement through the definition of the required legal and institutional frameworks.
• The decentralization of water and wastewater management
• The strengthening of the institutional structure by training of users and dissemination of information.
• Wastewater treatment in rural areas, through the selection of appropriate non-standard technologies
• The reuse of wastewater, through the improvement of the legal and institutional framework complemented with capacity building, and awareness raising
• The treatment of industrial waste by strengthening the institutional framework accompanied with an incentives program and the implementation of the polluter pays principle
• Cost recovery by adjusting tariffs for water and sanitation based on a socio-economic study of affected users
• The recovery of sewage sludge and its reuse by developing an adequate institutional framework, management plans for sludge treatment and reuse and standards.
• Wastewater treatment levels through the rehabilitation of existing WWTPs and investment in new ones.

To download the document (only available in English) click here

To download the executive summary (in French) click here