Project description

Title: Strategic Advisory Services to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Egypt
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), Institutional Reform Unit (IRU)
Overall term: January 2006 to December 2008

Context

Egypt’s population is increasing very fast. Today, it has reached a number of approximately 78 million people, about six times more than in the last century. As a result, the need for water is increasing, whereas there is a decrease of the water availability per capita. An additional factor is the degradation of water quality due to domestic wastewater as well as to industrial sewage. Therefore, the problem is that, despite all developing measures in the water sector, water shortages are to be expected. To meet these challenges, the Egyptian government has decided to reform the country’s water sector. So far, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) has managed the water sector by itself. To ensure that, in the future, water resources are used in a sustainable, equitable and efficient way, an institutional reform will be implemented to relieve the, at present, heavily centralised ministry. The difficulty is that the MWRI does not have the experience and knowledge needed to achieve such complex reform processes.

Objective

The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) has successfully implemented an institutional reform of the water sector.

Approach

In close cooperation with GTZ, an Institutional Reform Unit (IRU), established by the Egyptian ministry, develops concepts and strategies that will allow the implementation of these reform plans. The core strategy is to decentralise the MWRI and establish a number of Regional Water Management Authorities (RWMA). These RWMA will autonomously be responsible for certain duties such as water supplement, maintenance of the canals, or conflict management. A key step is that water users will share the costs involved, especially the agricultural sector, which is using more than 85 percent of the available water for irrigation. So far, this sector was only marginally asked to share cost recovery. Thus, the RWMA will manage the water sector on a regional level while the ministry continues to control and coordinate the process on a national level.

Results achieved so far

With substantial assistance by the Netherlands, USAID, the World Bank, the German Development Bank KfW Entwicklungsbank, and other donors, MWRI has established some 6,000 Water User Associations at a mesqa (smallest canal) level and approximately 800 Water User Organisations at district and branch canal level to take over local water management tasks. A very important reform element was the division of the old lands, Nile-Delta and fertile Nile-Valley, into five hydrological regions. In October 2007 another important step was taken: The MWRI decided to start forming a first RWMA in the Delta Region.
And there are other achievements: To support and quicken the reform process, a public private partnership was negotiated with Egypt’s largest mobile network provider. Also, awareness campaigns are needed to prepare ministry employees for the proposed changes.

Further informationen

• Webpage of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
  www.mwri.gov.eg