Egypt’s first National Steering Committee meeting held

On March 14, 2019, the ReWater Mena project held Egypt’s first National Steering Committee meeting, which brought together representatives from the uptake partners (Ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Housing); project partners leading implementation of project activities in Egypt at the local and national levels – the International Centre for Agriculture in the Dry areas (ICARDA) and Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE); and representatives from the Arab Water Council (AWC) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI), which leads the project.

The meeting offered a good opportunity to familiarize uptake partners with IWMI’s scope of work in the region, including the ReWater Mena project’s activities and expected impacts, outcomes, and outputs. ICARDA and CEDARE presented their 2019 work plans, on which Steering Committee members shared their views and comments. ICARDA presented a description of four proposed sites where there is potential to increase the use of treated wastewater and/or make existing reuse safer. These sites were selected on the basis of a preliminary review, backed by recommendations from national authorities. Steering Committee members ranked the proposed sites based on a set of criteria, and selected two – Luxor and Marsa Matrouh – for the start of project activities. The meeting was hosted by CEDARE, the lead partner for implementing activities of the ReWater Mena project at the national level in Egypt. CEDARE will hold national learning alliance meetings, formulate the national reuse targets and strategy, and take policy steps to achieve these targets.