PPP with the Ministry and a mobile phone company

“The Blue Line” is the name of the public-private partnership between GTZ, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Mobinil, the largest mobile phone operator in Egypt, launched in Cairo on 21 October. It is intended to make the inhabitants of rural areas better able to organise their agricultural water supply themselves.

Cuts in public services have left the approx. 50,000 kilometres of agricultural irrigation and drainage channels that have been created over thousands of years in danger of decay. Now the Egyptian Government is taking measures to counteract this. With support from GTZ, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has developed an extensive reform strategy. As part of the decentralisation of the irrigation sector, the Ministry is establishing independent district water boards with support from the Netherlands. The partnership with Mobinil and GTZ is intended to reinforce this process. Mobinil is initially prepared to equip up to five new district water boards under “The Blue Line” initiative.

In the first step, the private-sector partner is providing tractors and diggers to these new water boards for maintaining the water channels. In addition Mobinil is supplying over two hundred telephones, computers, fax machines and telephone connections for mobiles and landlines at cheap rates. A new hotline will also make it easier for customers to contact their water boards. “Overall, the assumption of responsibility for water management by the water boards and the participation of the private sector are of prime importance for the successful decentralisation of the irrigation sector,” said Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, as the PPP agreement was signed. He added that the district water boards were closer to customers and were therefore better placed to meet their needs. Furthermore, they were easier to contact when problems arose. And the contribution of a large company such as Mobinil could not be measured solely in terms of tractors or diggers. “This is a strong signal to other companies that are considering a partnership,” declared Timur El Hadidi, who is responsible for publicity in the GTZ project and initiator of the cooperation.

But what interest does a mobile phone company have in improving the water supply? “Mobinil would like to become better known, particularly in rural areas and acquire new customers there,” explained Stefan Sennewald, responsible at GTZ for the Egyptian water sector. For this reason the public-private partnership ultimately benefits all involved. Sennewald is convinced that “If the private sector in Egypt continues to cooperate so well with the Ministry, perhaps the reform of the water sector can be completed in just a few years.”

2 November 2007