7 water and wastewater treatment plants to be built across Egypt

7 new water and wastewater treatment plants are set to be constructed in Egypt. This is after Hassan Allam Construction and Intech partnered together and secured the contract to implement the project which also involves the construction of relevant networks, and lift stations.

These projects will ultimately serve more than one and a half million Egyptians by offering clean and treated water, enhancing the quality of life of those served by this new government initiative. A drinking water shortage was identified as a pressing issue in Egypt’s environmental sustainability, due to the intensive use of water in very densely populated areas.

About 8.4 million people are deprived of access to improved sanitation, mostly in rural areas. Overall, 10% of the Egyptian population do not benefit from access to improved sanitation, with marked geographical and socio-economic disparities.

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Sanitation crisis in Egypt

The existing wastewater treatment infrastructure did not produce water with adequate levels of quality to enable the water to be used to irrigate agricultural and urban green areas, forcing freshwater to be used instead.

Additionally, in cities without advanced wastewater treatment plants the used water was dumped into the river, generating significant negative effects on the river’s ecosystem and public health. The government decided to build new infrastructure to reuse urban wastewater for the purposes mentioned, thereby reducing freshwater use.

Sanitation services in Egypt are less developed than water supply services. Wastewater use in Egypt is an old practice. Currently, 0.7 BCM/yr of treated wastewater is being used in irrigation, of which 0.26 BCM is undergoing secondary treatment and 0.44 BCM undergoing primary treatment. In general, treated wastewater use is of tremendous potential importance for Egypt. At present, there are more than 323 wastewater treatment plants in the country.