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Project News

2013-03-10

Kick-off meeting was held by the Project for Strengthening Water Management Transfer (SWMT Project).

The SWMT Project had the Kick-off Meeting in Cairo on March 3, 2013.

There were 71 participants in total, not only the co-implementing agencies of the SWMT Project namely, the Central Department of Irrigation Advisory Service (CDIAS), Planning Sector (PS), Training Sector for Water Resources and Irrigation (TSWRI) and Irrigation Sector (IS) of Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) but also from the related regional organizations, other donors (GIZ, USAID), the Japanes Embassy and JICA.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Masami Kinefuchi, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Embassy of Japan, Mr. Hideki Matsunaga, Chief Representative of JICA Egypt Office and Eng. Mohamed Beltagi, Head of Irrigation Department (ID) of the MWRI, gave their opening remarks to the participants. After the opening ceremony, Eng. Nagwa El Khashab, Head of the CDIAS and Manager of the SWMT Project explained about the project, while Eng. Kunihiko Naito, Chief Advisor of the project had his presentation about the activities and schedule of the project.

PhotoOpening ceremony of the kick-off meeting (From the left, Mr. Matsunaga, Mr. Kinefuchi, Eng. Beltagi and Dr. Essam Khalifa, Head of Minister's Supervisory Office in the MWRI).

PhotoEng. Naito explaining about the SWMT Project.


Thereafter, criteria and results of selection of pilot sites were explained by the Egyptian implementation agencies, and it was officially announced that Ebheet (Fayoum), Shubra Baloola (Middle Delta) and Bisintaway (West Delta) were selected as pilot sites of the SWMT Project. Subsequently, roles of each departments of the MWRI in the SWMT Project were explained, while general information of each pilot site was presented by the district engineers.

Finally, a video program of a JICA's technical cooperation project on participatory water management by farmers in Sri Lanka was screened, and open discussions were held by all participants.

In the open discussion, various opinions about the activities of the SWMT Project were presented by many participants. For instance, there was an opinion that it is necessary for realization of the water management transfer to make the law and the funds, while there were other wide range of opinions about the current situations of water quality and environmental condition of canals in the pilot sites. The open discussion was wrapped up by having a comment that "the SWMT Project is a significant project that is aiming at enhancing capacities of all the counterpart personnel in MWRI working for water management transfer and therefore the whole MWRI must actively cooperate with the project."

PhotoEng. Nagwa introducing the SWMT Project.

PhotoClosing ceremony of the kick-off meeting (From the left, Eng. Naito, Dr. Mohamed Bahaa El-Deen, Minister of MWRI and Eng. Beltagi).


At the end, Dr. Mohamed Bahaa El-Deen, Minister of the MWRI came to attend the closing ceremony of the kick-off meeting, stating that he is keen on success of the SWMT Project since water management transfer has been one of the oldest subjects. After his remarks, the kick-off meeting was successfully ended.

Although a lot of time and efforts were needed to prepare for the kick-off meeting because it was the biggest event in which many stakeholders participated since the start of the SWMT Project in November 2012, it was successfully completed thanks to full support by all parties concerned. We believe that it became a good chance for all the participants to share information on water management transfer as well as to enhance their recognition of the SWMT Project. We appreciate their kind support to the project and will continuously make efforts to meet their expectations and achieve the project goal in full cooperation with all the project staff and the other stakeholders.

PhotoParticipants in the kick-off meeting.

PhotoParticipants in the kick-off meeting.

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