Business Today - Dec 2022 - Jan 2023 issue

In-Depth
By Nourhan Magdi
Egypt is diversifying its efforts to meet
the challenges facing the water sector
to secure water to sustain the rapidly
growing population, especially amid
negative impacts of climate change.
The country has embarked on many major
projects that serve the opened and covered networks
of the republic’s agricultural drainage systems.
Egypt suffers greatly from water scarcity, which
is why the state is making great efforts, grounded
in scientific findings, to face water challenges
resulting from limited water resources. Over
the past years the nation has implemented several
major projects reusing agricultural drainage
with the aim of implementing projects contributing
to agricultural expansion, achieving food
security and mitigating desertification. Among
these projects are the Bahr El-Baqar, al-Hamam
and al-Mahsama wastewater treatment plants.
The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources
and Irrigation recently completed the construction
of the main Al-Salam wastewater station,
which consists of seven units with a capacity of
11 cubic meters per second. The state-of-the art
facility uses energy-saving equipment and features
an automatic control system in operation,
using high-tech programmed control devices to
ensure the safety of operation of the station’s
equipment
The Al-Salam station is part of the major
Bahr El-Baqar drainage water treatment system,
and raises 5.60 million cubic meters per day to
the treatment plant. The facility was registered
in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest
water treatment plant in the world, producing
2,044,000,000 m³ per year.
Bahr El-Baqar Wastewater Treatment Plant
With a capacity of 64.8 m³ (2,288 ft³) per second,
Bahr El-Baqar treatment plant introduces
a sustainable solution for environmental pollution
recovery and irrigation water source (via
recycling the water of Bahr El-Baqar drain), protecting
the environment and generating enough
water to support the cultivation of 400,000 feddans
in Sinai.
Started in 2019 and inaugurated in September
2021, the EGP 18 billion Bahr El-Baqar wastewater
treatment plant is the largest facility of its
kind in the world, treating around 5 million cubic
meters of water from the Bahr El-Baqar basin
every day. The 155-feddan facility has four treatment
lines, each with the capacity to process 1.25
million cubic meters of water each day.
The plant is located 10 km south of Port Sai’d
www.BusinessTodayEgypt.com January 2023
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