Project News

Although the experts had been in Japan since August 22 for temporal evacuation due to political turmoil in Egypt, they returned on October 2, 2013 as the situation improved.

Since there had been no substantial progress in the project activities in the pilot sites since July 2013 when the local situation began unraveling, the experts had several meetings about the project activities with their counterparts (CPs) at the Central Department of Irrigation Advisory Service (CDIAS) soon after their arrival. While at the same time, workshops were held to discuss the current situation and the activity schedule in each of the three pilot sites with the regional CPs on October 29, 30 and November 6. In the workshops, the regional CPs cordially welcomed the returning experts, and began a serious discussion about the project activities in the near future.

Workshop on Shubra Baloola in Middle Delta

Workshop on Ebheet in Fayoum

After establishing a common understanding of the project activities in each pilot site in the workshop, a baseline survey was conducted by having interviews with the regional CPs and farmers and by assessing the current conditions of the water facilities and canals in all three pilot sites. Since these field activities are very important to implement water management transfer (WMT) from the government to the Water Users Associations (WUAs), the WUAs members have been encouraged to participate in every field activity.

This is the first step in realizing WMT ensuring that the WUA members become able to understand the current situation of their canals as they can often recognize new aspects or technical problems of the canals while visiting and inspecting those water facilities with our project team and the local engineers.

Through these field activities, we will not only enhance ownership of the WUA members on their canals, but also strengthen partnership between them and the regional CPs.

Measurement of the water facility in Ebheet

Interview on operation of the water facility with the WUA member in Bisintaway (West Delta)