Egypt, Somalia Prepare to Sign MoU in Water Resources Management

Hani Sewilam, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt met Friday with the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Somalia Abdullahi Bidan.

According to a press release issued, the minister expressed Egypt's keenness to enhance cooperation with Somalia, and support cooperation ties with African countries by creating common interests and achieving mutual benefit for all parties.

On his part, the Somali minister expressed his country's keenness to enhance cooperation with Egypt in the field of water to improve the process of water management and deal with the challenges of climate change.

Sewilam stressed that the necessary steps are currently being taken to sign a memorandum of understanding in the field of water resources management, training and capacity building between Egypt and Somalia, which will focus on multiple aspects including providing technical support for conducting technical studies and field surveys to estimate water potential, as well as technical support in the field of designing, rehabilitating and operating irrigation facilities, as well as cleaning and dredging irrigation canals.

The MoU will include also  technical support in the field of early warning and rainwater harvesting by predicting the amounts and locations of rainfall through digital weather forecasting models, in addition to training and capacity building in areas related to water resources, modern irrigation systems, water resources management, and designing and operating various irrigation facilities.

He expressed his appreciation for the effective efforts made by the State of Somalia recently in communicating with the AWARe Initiative Secretariat to participate in the various tracks of the initiative. Sewilam noted the importance of the Somali side submitting proposals for projects it wishes to finance in the field of water and climate under the umbrella of the initiative, stressing the need for coordination and joint cooperation between the countries of the South to deal with the water and climate challenges they face.

He pointed out that Somali trainees participated in the training courses held at the African Training Center for Water and Climate Adaptation (PACWA), which was established under the umbrella of the initiative, and that there are opportunities for more Somali and African trainees to participate in future courses. 

Abdullahi Bidan alluded to the strategic cooperation and strong relations between Egypt and Somalia, which are witnessing great progress between the two countries, explaining that there are common and similar challenges between the two sides, which requires the necessity of coordination to confront these challenges in a joint manner, with the necessity of paying attention to the areas of training, capacity building and providing scholarships.