On the sidelines of his participation in the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification COP16, held in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sweilam conducted on Sunday 8/12/2024 an inspection visit to the Al-Shuaiba desalination plant, which serves the cities of Mecca and Jeddah, as well as several other cities, with a production capacity of 600,000 cubic metres per day.
During the visit, Dr Sweilam reviewed the various components of the plant, which include a model for seawater desalination for agricultural purposes, a research laboratory to study the use of brine water resulting from the desalination process, a mobile laboratory for measuring water quality, and a plant for producing magnesium from seawater.
Dr Sweilam praised the "Seawater Desalination Model for Agriculture" attached to the plant as a successful model in the field of desalination, highlighting the importance of enhancing technical cooperation in the water sector between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, especially in light of the water challenges facing both countries. He also referred to the visit of a high-level Saudi delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Water, Environment and Agriculture, and the Deputy Minister for Research and Innovation in November last year to the New Delta and Bahr Al-Baqr stations for the treatment of agricultural drainage water, to learn about the components of the two projects and benefit from Egyptian expertise in water treatment and reuse, as part of the memorandum of understanding signed between the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the Saudi Ministry of Water, Environment and Agriculture.
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Dr Sweilam pointed out that the Arab region is the most water-scarce area among all regions of the world, with 19 out of 22 Arab countries experiencing water scarcity, necessitating the adoption of new policies to address this challenge and maximise the return from each unit of water by "producing more food with less water," especially in areas suffering from population growth amid limited water resources. He emphasised the need to use the water footprint to evaluate success in maximising returns from each unit of water.
He stressed the importance of relying on modern science and technology in areas such as improving water use efficiency, desalination of saline water, and water treatment to enhance countries' capacity to deal with the challenges of limited water resources. He explained that desalination for the intensive production of food is one of the most important tools to address population growth amid limited water resources, but we must start now to lay the foundations for future reliance on this transformation. He emphasised the importance of scientific research in providing alternatives and scientific proposals to reduce the cost of desalination, making it economically viable in the future when used for intensive food production.
He indicated that there are several successful models in the field of desalination for intensive food production with minimal water usage applied in several Arab countries, which can be beneficial. He noted that Arab countries are the most concerned with implementing these models given the water challenges they face.
Cabinet
