Egypt calls on Russia to build desalination plants as Nile dam talks stall
Egypt has recently agreed with the Russian Rusnano Group to develop its local components and build more desalination plants to face the water scarcity that could result from the Ethiopian dam being built on the Blue Nile.
The Egyptian government has taken unprecedented interest in seawater desalination, especially with the continuing failure of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations and Ethiopia’s completion of 75% of the dam construction.
Egypt has used Russian expertise, in cooperation with the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), the Egyptian armed forces’ Engineering Authority and the University of Alexandria, to promote the local production of seawater desalination.
During talks between the Russian Rusnano Group, the AOI and the Engineering Authority held via video call Jan. 22, Abdul Menhem al-Toras, head of the AOI, underlined the importance of exploiting local industrial capacities to cement domestic production and localize the technology of manufacturing the tools of water desalination stations.
“The aim behind this cooperation is to manufacture tools and components of the seawater desalination stations using national Egyptian expertise,” he said.
