Investing in water and food security

Bavarian companies can help Egypt in water management by engineering services, systems, and automated technologies, Ulrike Wolf, ministerial director at the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, said during the Egyptian-Bavarian Forum on Water and Food Security organised by the German-Arab Chamber for Industry and Commerce (AHK) in collaboration with the Bavarian Ministry for Economic Affairs in Cairo last week.

“We want to reinforce and expand our partnership with Egypt on important issues related to water and food security,” Wolf said, adding that she and other members of the Bavarian delegation at the forum had been impressed by Egypt’s experience in water management and its current water projects like the New Delta Project.  

“We have come to stay and to establish an ongoing dialogue between Bavaria and Egypt, because we think that economic relations are the basis for stability and prosperity,” Wolf said.

 The Bavarian delegation had had excellent business-to-business and business-to-government talks during last week’s visit, she added.

Economic Attaché at the German Embassy in Cairo Alexis Below said that water and food security were two pressing issues for Egypt, and solutions to them would require a combination of new policies, sufficient financing, and modern technology.

Egypt’s water resources are under pressure, due to rising temperatures caused by climate change and a growing population, Below said. It needs to rehabilitate and modernise agricultural irrigation systems along with the management of wastewater and improve the infrastructure of such systems.

Below said that Egypt had successfully made water a priority on the national stage, dedicating a day at the UN COP27 Climate Change Conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2022 to water issues.