Panel meeting Egypt: ‘This panel works’

Africa Partners for Water Programme

The High Level Panel on Water Egypt - the Netherlands

Last month, Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management met with her Egyptian colleague, Minister Dr. Mohamed Abdel Aty from the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. Both attended the Egypt–Netherlands Water Panel in The Hague.

Innovative ways of financing projects

Minister Van Nieuwenhuizen concluded the water panel works for both countries and encouraged the delegations to create as much synergy and impact as possible with the panel activities and emphasised the need for innovative ways of financing projects. Both ministers are looking forward to the signing of a new MoU on water cooperation later this year.

The Egypt–Netherlands Water Panel provides an opportunity for regular policy dialogues and offers a platform to discuss, initiate, and evaluate cooperation initiatives between the two countries. NWP organised the panel meeting in the Netherlands within the framework of the Partners for Water Programme. The next water panel will be in Cairo, Egypt.

Climate adaptation

The overarching theme of this ministerial panel meeting was climate adaptation. Low-lying coastal Alexandria, for instance, is flood prone, and agriculture in the Nile Delta has to adapt to increased saline levels. Climate adaptation is thus a vital strategy for sustainable delta living. Via presentations from the Global Center for Adaptation (GCA), water sector experts, and field visits to Rotterdam and Zeeland, innovative and proven strategies and solutions were presented to the delegation.

Country platform meeting

Would you like to learn more about the outcomes of the panel meeting, recent developments in Egypt, or the joint Dutch activities during the Cairo Water Week in October 2019? Please join us for a meeting of the country platform Egypt on 3 July of the Partners for Water Programme, organised by NWP. You can register here.

If you have any questions about the Netherlands–Egypt water cooperation programme and the opportunities for the Dutch water sector, please contact Daniël van Dijk, d.vandijk@nwp.nl or Sabrina Doetjes, s.doetjes@nwp.nl.