The Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel-Atti has discussed the challenges that face the Nile River during the Coalition of Deltas meetings in Netherlands, the Ministry announced in a statement Wednesday.
He also tackled the ministry’s projects to protect the Delta amid climate change, the statement added without going into further details about the projects.
However, millions of Egyptians have been gripped by fears over the construction of Ethiopian Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Egypt is worried about the affect it may have on the Nile. President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi expressed his and Youths’ concerns over water poverty, saying “there will be an agreement with Ethiopia about retention of water for many years.”
The meeting was attended by the Water Ministers of the Netherlands, Japan, Colombia, Bangladesh, Mozambique, South Korea, France, Indonesia, and Myanmar. The meeting was held on the sidelines of Rotterdam International Conference 2016 on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation scheduled May 11 to 13.
The Minister discussed the ministry’s priority project of cultivating 1.5 million feddans in the desert and it aim to establish urban societies, depending on underground water. Abdel-Atti said that the project aims to achieve sustainable development, although some environmental experts doubt the sustainability of the project, but said it could be a mitigation strategy.
The Coalition of Deltas is an initiative formed by the Netherlands, Japan, and Colombia in March 2015. Since then the above mentioned countries announced their participation in the coalition that aims for exchange development experience among the participating members.
