Project description

Title: Water Supply and Wastewater Management
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Egypt
Lead executing agency: Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW), Ministry of Housing, Urbanisation and Urban Development (MoHUUD)
Overall term: 2007 to 2017

Context

For several years, the water supply and wastewater sector in Egypt has been undergoing a very dynamic reform process. The current priority area lies in improvement of organisational and institutional framework conditions. Responsibilities in this area are being progressively transferred away from the governorates’ own enterprises and assigned to the newly established water supply and sewage disposal utilities. The new enterprises will be consolidated step by step in a holding company (Holding Company for Water and Wastewater – HCWW). This step in the direction of commercialisation is expected to bring about a significant improvement of the situation in the water and wastewater sector. As yet, the responsible companies are not in a position to perform their water supply/wastewater disposal services economically and efficiently.

Objective

Water supply and wastewater disposal services are improved in selected Egyptian governorates.

Approach

The programme contains four components.

The project team advises technical and managerial staff of the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater Management on the topics of management, organisational development and training. Special attention is paid to capacity building in investment planning, in training management and in strategic planning.

In the water utility in the Qena Governorate, strengthening the skills and capacities of management and workers promotes the expansion and development of the enterprise.

The programme advises selected municipalities, water utility technicians and communal self-help groups in designing and introducing appropriate decentralised rural wastewater disposal systems.

In work groups including representatives of all sectoral institutions, proposals for the new water sector policy and their implementation are formulated and coordinated with the relevant ministries.

Results achieved so far

In both the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW) and in its subsidiary enterprises, organisational processes were improved.

The HCWW is presently drawing up a business plan in which all of the enterprise’s future business processes are listed and planned. Among them are the work areas advised by the programme:

• accreditation of the newly-established reference laboratory to ISO 17025
• establishment of a standardised national training system
• continuous updating of the regional master plans
• introduction of a certification system for operation of a water treatment and clarification plant

The keystone to improvement of management competence in Qena is introduction of the new organisational chart. It regulates responsibilities and describes clearly all the functions in the company. The staff make constant improvements in operations (improving work and maintenance routines and introducing energy-saving methods), in the financial administration (budgeting and bookkeeping) and the management of the company training measures.

The programme achieved particular successes in launching decentralised wastewater management systems in selected rural areas. Through the self-administered system, put into practise by members of the local population, sewage flooding village streets was eliminated, hygienic conditions in the community improved immediately and the costs of wastewater disposal fell.

In the process of advising the housing ministry a draft policy has been submitted and is now under discussion in the water sector.

This programme comprises the following components

• Decentralised Wastewater Management in the Governorate of Kafr El Sheikh