Water shortages bring suffering to Egypt’s countryside | Mada Masr
▻http://www.madamasr.com/sections/environment/water-shortages-bring-suffering-egypts-countryside
“The issue of water is that it is not a priority to the government,” says Khaled Wasif, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. Only a fraction of the money needed to maintain the water supply network is actually allocated each year by the government, he says.
Though the responsibility for managing water is scattered between various ministries, and authorities, the most important entity for ensuring Egyptian citizens receive clean water reliably is the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater. A public company that operates and maintains the network of pipes, the HCWW says it has been so under funded in recent years that it cannot properly do either.
In 2014, the HCWW estimated they required LE15 billion a year to function properly, including LE3.2 billion just to provide basic maintenance of the existing network. The cabinet only assigned them LE700 million.