Water supply and sanitation in Egypt

Drinking water supply and sanitation in Egypt is characterized by both achievements and challenges. Among the achievements are an increase of piped water supply between 1998 and 2006 from 89% to 100% in urban areas and from 39% to 93% in rural areas despite rapid population growth; the elimination of open defecation in rural areas during the same period; and in general a relatively high level of investment in infrastructure. Access to an at least basic water source in Egypt is now practically universal with a rate of 98%. On the institutional side, the regulation and service provision have been separated to some extensions through the creation of a national Holding Company for Water and Wastewater in 2004, and of an economic regulator, the Egyptian Water Regulatory Agency (EWRA), in 2006.
, many challenges remain. Only about one half of the population is connected to sanitary sewers. Partly because of low sanitation coverage about 50,000 children die each year because of diarrhea. Another challenge is low cost recovery due to water tariffs that are among the lowest in the world. This in turn requires government subsidies even for operating costs, a situation that has been aggravated by salary increases without tariff increases after the Arab Spring. Poor operation of facilities, such as water and wastewater treatment plants, as well as limited government accountability and transparency, are also issues.

Foreign aid from the United States, the European Union, France, Germany, the World Bank and other donors remains important, both in terms of financing and in terms of technical assistance. Western donors also have long promoted sector reforms aiming at higher levels of cost recovery and more efficient service provision. Private sector participation has so far been limited mainly to Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects for treatment plants.

Access

In 2015, 98% of the population had access to "at least basic" water and 93% had access to "at least basic" sanitation, in 2015. Nevertheless, there were still, in 2015, 1.8 million people without access to "at least basic" water and 6.4 million without access to "at least basic" sanitation.

According to one source, Egypt has reached the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without proper access to safe water and sanitation by 2015 ahead of time in 2008.World Bank (2008), Arab Republic of Egypt: Urban Sector Update, Retrieved on 2009-12-15 However, according to the government report of the same year, Egypt was still off track to achieve the sanitation target in rural areas, especially in Upper Egypt and in frontier governorates.

Soakaway latrines, which are common in rural areas, often do not work properly due to the high groundwater table, infrequent emptying and cracks in the walls. Thus sewage leaks out and contaminates the surrounding streets, canals, and groundwater. Trucks that empty latrines and septic tanks do not necessarily discharge septage into wastewater treatment plants, but rather dump the content in the environment.

Service quality

Continuity of supply

According to the government's National Research Center, 40 percent of Cairo's inhabitants do not get water for more than three hours per day and three large districts do not receive any piped water. In 2008 demonstrations concerning this issue took place in Suez, where 500 people blocked a main road to Cairo. According to a survey carried out prior to 2006 in governorate of Fayoum, 46% of households complained about low water pressure, 30% about frequent water cuts and 22% complained that water is not available during day time. These problems lead many people to use water from canals which could be hazardous to health. Service quality is particularly poor in mature informal districts where about 20% of the Egyptian population lives.

Drinking water quality

It is estimated that each year about 17,000 children die from diarrhea. One reason is that drinking water quality is often below standards.National Water Research Center, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (2007)
Actualizing the Right to Water: An Egyptian Perspective for an Action Plan
Shaden Abdel-Gawad, retrieved on 2012-04-30 Some water treatment plants are not maintained properly and are thus inefficient in removing parasites, viruses and other parasitic microorganisms. In 2009, a study by the Ministry of Health showed that drinking water for half a million people in Asiut was unfit for human consumption. As of June 2011, nothing had been done to address the problem. Chlorination systems of wells, which had been installed years ago because high levels of bacteria had been detected in the groundwater, failed for lack of maintenance and have been shut down so that untreated water is not provided to the residents.

In the village Wardan in North Giza, the water became very dark in 2007. The authorities declared that they were not responsible, claiming that illegal shallow wells or boosters that some residents installed to ensure water availability and pressure, are responsible for the problem. According to the Ministry of Environment, "there is a lack of coordination among institutions responsible for monitoring water quality and an absence of a unified system of analysis, techniques and methodologies".

Wastewater treatment

Egypt had 375 municipal wastewater treatment plants in 2012, treating an average of 10.1 million cubic meters per day. The capacity of Egypt's wastewater treatment plants was more than 11 million cubic meters per day, serving more than 18 million people. The number has increased 10 times between 1985 and 2005. The amount of water which is released into the Nile is 3.8 billion m³ per year, out of which only 35% was treated properly as of 2004.The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation; Arab Republic of Egypt (2005)
Integrated Water Resources Management Plan
Retrieved on 2008-12-12

In Alexandria, the wastewater treatment system was established in the early 1990s and can no longer properly support the growing population. High quantities of pollutants, including microplastics, have entered the neighboring Lake Mariout and the sea as a result.

The largest wastewater treatment plant in Egypt is located in Gabal el Asfar to the Northeast of Cairo, serving about 9 million people and treating 2 million cubic meters per day in 2009. The plant discharges into the Belbeis Drain and then into Bahr El Baqar Drain (BBD), which in turn drains to Lake Manzala 170 km away from Cairo. The drain and Lake Manzala had been identified as "black spots" by the Egyptian Environmental Action Plan back in 1992. The quality of water improved substantially after the completion of the first 1.2 million cubic meter per day stage of the plant in 1999, but the drain and the lake are still environmentally fragile. Until 2009 the capacity was extended to 2 million cubic meters per day. A contract for the expansion of the plant to 2.5 million cubic meters per day is financed by the African Development Bank. The tendering began in 2011 and the Design-Build-Operate contract was awarded in October 2013. Completion is expected in 2015. A planned third stage would bring capacity to 3 million cubic meters per day, serving 12 million people and making Gabal al Asfar one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the world.

Another large wastewater treatment plant is located at Abu Rawash in the western part of Giza governorate. It initially treated 0.4 million cubic meters only at primary level. The treated water is discharged in the Barakat drain and then 50 km downstream into the Nile River. In 2005-08 the capacity was increased to 1.2 million cubic meters per day. In 2013 a tender was underway to upgrade the entire plant to secondary treatment and to increase its capacity to 1.6 million cubic meters per day with a possible loan funding from EBRD and Egyptian banks as part of a public-private partnership.

An effort to limit microplastics reaching the ocean is underway for wastewater treatment plants in Alexandria, with a €120 million loan from the European Investment Bank. Sludge treatment is part of the project, which will generate biogas and minimize the need of fossil fuels. This effort aims to enhance wastewater treatment facilities for 1.5 million people in the area.

Water resources

Egypt's main source of freshwater is the Nile River. The river supplies 56.8 billion m³ of freshwater every year, which represents 97% of all renewable water resources in Egypt. Average rainfall in Egypt is estimated at 18 mm or 1.8 billion m³ per year. Furthermore, Egypt has four different groundwater aquifers: the Nile Aquifer, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, the Moghra Aquifer and the Coastal Aquifer. Since 2005, Egypt is classified as a water scarce country as it has less than 1000 m³ of fresh water per year per capita. Furthermore, it is forecasted that in 2025 the population will reach 95 million, which would mean a per capita share of only 600 m³ per year. Cities on the Red Sea coast such as Hurghada are supplied with water from the Nile pumped via pipelines. However, in 2015 a contract for an 80,000 m³/day seawater desalination plant has been awarded to supply the city with water.

Water use and hygiene behavior

At the national level, total domestic water use in Egypt is estimated at about 5.5 billion m³ per year or 8% of total water use. This corresponds to an average of about 200 liter per capita per day (L/c/d), or almost twice as much as in Germany. However, actual domestic water use is lower because of network losses, and furthermore it varies considerably between different localities in Egypt. For example, the installed drinking water supply capacity ranges from 70 L/c/d in Upper Egypt to 330 L/c/d in Cairo. Water consumption in Alexandria is about 300 L/c/d.Badran M.; Jamrah A.; Gaese H.
Assessment of a cost-covering sanitation tariff for Alexandria/Egypt
2010

At the local level, a study on water and sanitation in two villages in the Nile Delta conducted in the late 1980s provides some insights into water use and hygiene behavior in rural areas at the time. The inhabitants had access to three water sources: piped water from household connections or public standpipes; shallow wells with handpumps; and canal water. Canals were used by many women for laundry and washing domestic utensils, and for cleaning vegetables and grain.Samiha El-Katsha:Women, Water, and Sanitation: Household Water Use in Two Egyptian Villages. Cairo Papers in Social Science, Volume 12, Monograph 2, Summer 1989. Social Research Center Research Series No. 1

Women preferred canal water to groundwater because canal water was softer and was not brackish. The surroundings of standpipes were dirty and the residents did not feel responsible to maintain them, seeing this as a responsibility of the government. Shallow wells were contaminated. There was no sewerage and no system to dispose greywater. Household latrines were used primarily by women. Men used sanitary facilities at mosques or defecated in canals. Children defecated openly in the streets or fields. Emptying of latrines was done by donkey carts or trucks which empty their load into canals. As a result of conditions like these infant mortality remained high despite the government's provision of water through standpipes.

More recent survey data show that hygiene behavior has improved since then at the national level: The rate of open defecation in rural areas declined from 17% in 1990 to less than 1% in 2005. While provision of water supply alone had only a limited impact on child mortality, subsequent improvements in sanitation and hygiene behavior contributed to significantly reduce child mortality from 90/1000 births in 1990 to 23 in 2008.

Infrastructure

As of 2008, there were 153 large and 817 small drinking water treatment plants, as well as 239 wastewater treatment plants. The length of the water distribution networks was 107,000 km and the length of the wastewater collection network was 29,000 km.

History

From the 19th century to contemporary Egypt

The first modern water companies in Egypt were created by European private investors in Alexandria and Cairo in the 1860s under the Khedivate of Egypt. At the same time, the French-British Suez Canal Company operated, alongside the Suez Canal itself, the drinking water supply for the Suez Canal cities Port Said, Suez and Ismailia, the latter city having been created by the company.

The Cairo and Alexandria water companies were nationalized in 1956, along with the nationalization of the Suez Canal by the socialist government of Gamal Abdel Nasser. For the promotion of investments in provincial cities, two state agencies were created, one in charge of water supply and one in charge of sanitation.

Economic opening and the arrival of foreign aid in the 1970s

With the economic opening of Egypt under the government of Anwar Sadat in the 1970s ( Infitah) substantial foreign aid arrived. In particular, USAID provided assistance for water supply and sanitation in Greater Cairo, Alexandria and the Suez Canal cities. Provincial cities and rural areas, however, were initially neglected. About half of the investments undertaken at that time were made in Cairo and Alexandria, although only a quarter of the population lived there.

Achievements. As a result of massive externally funded investments access to water supply and sanitation increased substantially during the next decades. For example, water production capacity increased from 5.5 million cubic meters per day in 1982 to 21 million in 2004 and per capita water consumption increased from 130 to 275 liter per day during the same period.EU Water Initiative: COUNTRY DIALOGUES PROCESS ON WATER IN MEDITERRANEAN PARTNER COUNTRIES, Inaugural Meeting of the Country Dialogue in Egypt (Cairo 22/11/06
Holding Company of Water & Wastewater
retrieved on July 23, 2011

Challenges. However, the organizations in charge of operating and maintaining the infrastructure were weak in terms of financial and human resources, especially in provincial Egypt, so that service quality remained poor. A World Bank sector study in the late 1970s observed "dismal conditions", such as

Concerning inadequate cost recovery, in provincial Egypt only about one-third of the operating cost was recovered. Rural water supply was mostly through standpipes that provided water for free. All the meagre revenues were transferred to the Central Government, which in turn provided subsidies that were insufficient for proper operation and maintenance.

Only one of the six problems diagnosed in the 1970s has been resolved: investment levels have substantially increased and have remained high. However, the other problems still largely prevail more than three decades later despite two sector reforms carried out in 1981 and 2004.

Sector fragmentation and its consequences. The structure of the drinking water supply sector in the mid-1970s illustrates the problem of fragmentation:
* In Cairo and Alexandria water infrastructure was owned and operated by local water authorities - the Alexandria Water General Authority (AWGA) and the General Organization for Greater Cairo Water Supply (GOGCWS);
* in the Suez Canal cities, both water and sewer infrastructure were owned and operated by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA);
* the General Organization for Potable Water (GOPW) built and operated seven regional water systems, mainly in the Nile delta provinces;
* 115 municipalities owned and operated water systems in the larger provincial towns; and
* governorate housing directorates operated about 1250 rural water supply systems relying on boreholes or wells serving those areas not covered by municipalities or GOPW.World Ban
Project Completion Report, Arab Republic of Egypt, Beheira Provincial Potable Water Supply Project
June 30, 1995, p. 1-3, retrieved on July 23, 2011

The responsibility for wastewater collection and disposal systems was almost equally fragmented. It consisted of:
* 17 municipal systems of which Cairo's and Alexandria's were by far the largest. They were owned and operated by the General Organization for Greater Cairo Sanitary Drainage (GOGCSD) and the Alexandria General Organization for Sanitary Drainage (AGOSD), respectively.
* In provincial Egypt, investment in sewerage systems was the responsibility of the General Organization for Sewerage and Sanitary Drainage (GOSSD).
* Operation of such systems, however, was the responsibility of municipalities.

The planning of infrastructure for water supply and sanitation was separated between two organizations, GOPW and GOSSD. As a result, some towns or neighborhoods received access to piped water supply, but not to sewers, which led to a deterioration of the hygiene situation.

The 1981 reforms: Reduced fragmentation and creation of public companies

To remedy this situation, donors pushed for a sector reform. The government initiated the reform in 1981 with two key elements: First, it merged the water investment agency GOPW and the sanitation investment agency GOSSD in a single new entity called NOPWASD. Second, it promoted the creation of autonomous water and wastewater companies in each governorate, following the example of the existing companies in Cairo and Alexandria. However, the central government did not push hard for their creation. Two decades later only three such companies were created.

The Water Companies in the Nile Delta. The governor of Beheira governorate, located next to Alexandria, created the first such company, the Beheira Water Company, by decree in 1981. With financing from the World Bank and France, facilities in the governorate were renovated and expanded. This led to some positive results: water supply became continuous and cost recovery for operating costs was achieved. However, the project took 13 years to complete, 7 years longer than expected and experienced 67 percent cost overruns.

Two more water companies were created in the late 1980s, both also in the Nile Delta governorates and under the influence of external financiers: the Damietta water company with support from the World Bank and the Kafr el-Sheikh water and wastewater company with support from Germany. In other governorates, such as in Daqahliya, resistance from the governors and from NOPWASD prevented the creation of a water company despite pressure by external donors.

The three water companies were less successful than expected. A 1991 USAID report concluded:

Public Economic Authorities in other governorates. Seven other governorates (Aswan Governorate, Minya Governorate, Beni Suef Governorate, Faiyum Governorate, Dakahlia Governorate, Gharbia Governorate and Sharqia Governorate) created Public Economic Authorities for water supply which took over the responsibility to operate water supply systems from the former regional systems that had been operated by GOPW. These units had less scope for financial and managerial autonomy than the water companies.

National Water Pricing Policy. In 1985 the government adopted a National Water Pricing Policy with the objective to gradually reach full operation and maintenance cost recovery for water by 1991. The policy also introduced a sewer surcharge set at just 10% of the water bill. The policy also provided for incentives (10 percent of total income) in the form of bonuses to workers in the water industry. However, tariffs were not increased as foreseen by the policy.

Remaining challenges. In 2000, almost 10 years later, things had not much changed. A report by NOPWASD stated that institutional capacity and cost recovery in the sector remained low. Infrastructure continued to fall into disrepair, while the entities in charge of water supply and sewerage systems ran large deficits that were only partly covered through subsidies. At that time, the Alexandria Water Company was the only water company in Egypt to cover its operating costs. The report concluded that there was a "duplication of administrative entities, low cost recovery ratios, and lack of qualified management and modern management systems". A few years later, another government report observed that water and wastewater service providers were overstaffed with poorly qualified and poorly paid employees, that there was no system to evaluate staff performance, that billing and collection were poor and done manually, that there was no system to respond to citizen complaints, and no procedures for maintenance.

The 2004 reforms: Creation of the Holding Company and private sector participation

Genesis of the reforms. When donors expressed their dissatisfaction with the poor performance of the sector, the government initiated another sector reform that, again, aimed at improving service quality, gradually attaining a financial equilibrium and improving staff skills. The Ministry of Housing charged NOPWASD with the elaboration of a diagnostic study and recommendations for reforms. This was to be done under the label of decentralization through the creation of commercially oriented companies at the governorate level, just as recommended two decades earlier. However, two new elements were added to the reforms: private sector participation and autonomous regulation.

The study was presented to the Cabinet of Ministers in 1998. The Cabinet charged the Ministry of Housing with the elaboration of two documents: a decree on the reorganization of the water and wastewater sector, as well as a law on public utility concessions for water and wastewater. Both were initially approved in principle by Cabinet in 2000. However, the water concession law was never passed. A decree for the creation of a regulatory agency was also circulated. The process of enacting the reforms took many more years. During this time the decree on the reorganization of the sector was modified, creating a Holding Company that would de facto compete with NOPWASD.

Creation of the Holding Company. In April 2004 the decree that created the Holding Company, which was to become a central institution of the sector, was enacted. The existing 7 water and wastewater companies (2 in Cairo, 2 in Alexandria, and the 3 in the Nile Delta) as well as the existing 7 Public Economic Authorities were all transformed into Affiliated Companies of the Holding Company. While the Holding Company did not become responsible for investment, it was responsible for the acquisition of equipment to modernize its Affiliated Companies and for training their staff. Also, it became a key interlocutor for foreign donors.

Creation of a regulatory agency. In 2006 the sector reforms were complemented by the creation of a regulatory agency, the Egyptian Water Regulatory Agency. The creation of an "autonomous" regulatory agency for utilities was a standard recommendation made by donors for infrastructure sector reforms in developing countries at that time. The agency's tasks include reviewing proposals for tariff adjustments, monitoring the application of technical standards and reviewing customer complaints. The agency also has a mandate to both promote and regulate private sector participation. These tasks overlap with the tasks of other agencies, such as the Holding Company (which also reviews proposals for tariff adjustments, alongside the Ministry of Housing and the Cabinet), the public companies (which also review complaints) and the PPP Central Unit (which also promotes private sector participation). Five years after its creation, the regulatory agency remains a relatively weak and marginal entity whose autonomy is doubtful.

Private sector participation. In 2006 the government created a Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Central Unit in the Ministry of Finance to promote private greenfield investments in infrastructure across various sectors. In the water sector, the unit promoted large Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects for new wastewater treatment plants in Cairo and Alexandria. The unit left the operation of the utilities untouched.

Implementing the reforms. With the passing of the reforms, tariffs in Greater Cairo were increased from an extremely low base level by 100% as a signal to donors that the reforms were serious. The Holding Company started a program to replace 800,000 non-functioning meters, created a central laboratory, procured SCADA and GIS systems for the public companies and established customer hotlines. Furthermore, the Holding Company established a performance benchmarking system including bonus payments that are paid to companies that improve their performance. As a result of the reforms, donors re-engaged in the sector.

Unresolved challenges. While the reforms addressed some issues, others remain unresolved. For example, sector fragmentation was not actually reduced. No organization was dissolved; instead several new organizations were created. Cost recovery is still very low; overstaffing has apparently even increased from about 6.5 employees per 1000 connections in the early 2000s to about 10 in 2008. Also, the separation of responsibilities for investment and operation in provincial Egypt has not been addressed: NOPWASD remains in charge of investment, while the Affiliated Companies are only in charge of operation.

Overcoming the separation of investment and operation?. In the absence of a comprehensive reform, European donors have begun to address this issue at the project level. Under the Improved Water and Sanitation Program (IWSP), approved in 2009, the water and sanitation companies will be responsible for carrying out investments, thus by-passing NOPWASD. IWSP is jointly funded by four European financiers and the Egyptian government with a volume of 295 million Euro for its first phase. However, the World Bank under its Integrated Sanitation and Sewerage Infrastructure Project approved in 2008 (USD 320m in two phases) continues to channel investments through NOPWASD.

Impact of the Arab Spring (2011 onwards)

The Arab spring temporarily diverted policy attention away from sector reforms, while the financial situation of the Egyptian water utilities deteriorated because of wage increases that were not fully compensated through higher subsidies. Furthermore, the bill collection ratio further declined. In 2012, the government of Mohamed Morsi

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