Egypt has unveiled a 5-year plan to construct 47 seawater desalination plants with a combined capacity of 2.44 million cubic metres per day at a total cost of US $2.83 billion.
The five-year plan, between 2020 and 2025, is aimed at expanding seawater desalination plants across the country as part of a plan for water conservation and the North African government’s policy of promoting the exploitation of unconventional water resources.
The plan has four main stages; the first stage includes construction of 19 plants with a capacity of 312,000 cubic metres per day at a cost of US $ 428 million, while the second comprises the establishment of 7 plants with a capacity of 335,000 cubic metres per day at a cost of US $ 413 million.
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The third part of the project will see the construction of 19 reverse osmosis plants with a capacity of 1.29 million cubic metres of drinking water per day at an investment of US $ 1.85 billion. The fourth and final phase of the project will provide a drinking water production capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per day via two desalination plants.
The Nile River has been supplying Egypt with 56.8 billion cubic meters of freshwater every year being the main freshwater resource in the country of the pharaohs. Egypt receives an average rainfall of about 1.8 billion cubic meters per year.
With the construction of Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD), Egypt fears the flow of Nile river will be interrupted when Ethiopia begins the filling up of the dam. Egypt has failed to reach an agreement on how to regulate the flow of the Nile waters from the reservoir.
The implementation of Egypt’s 47 seawater desalination project will be overseen by the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW), the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) and the General Organization for Physical Planning.
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