The Fayoum Water and Wastewater Company is moving forward with the implementation of its Fayoum Wastewater Expansion Programme in Egypt. The company has recently appointed the Egyptian company Rowad Modern Engineering (RME) to implement a component of the programme. It involves the construction of nine effluent pumping stations in Fayoum. The objective is to improve liquid sanitation in the governorate located in the centre of the country.
The Fayoum Water and Wastewater Company estimates that the future facilities will have a (total) capacity of 14,589 m3 of wastewater per day. The effluent is treated in the Qahafa wastewater treatment plant, inaugurated in September 2010 with a daily capacity of 60,000 m3.
Preservation of water resources
As part of its contract, RME will also build a sewer network of approximately 53 km and lay 17 km of pipes. The Fayoum Wastewater Expansion Programme also aims to preserve the environment, especially the freshwater resource polluted by wastewater. This is particularly the case for Lake Qarun, the third largest body of water in the land of the pharaohs. The effluents also present a direct health risk due to the presence of pathogenic organisms such as bacteria (cholera, salmonella and shigellosis), viruses (hepatitis virus, enterovirus, poliovirus, Norwalk virus) and other parasites.
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RME will use 337 million Egyptian pounds (over US$12.2 million) of funding to carry out the work, which will benefit 29,785 of Fayoum’s 425,000 inhabitants. 186 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the implementation of the Fayum Wastewater Expansion Programme. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union (EU) Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) are also funding the programme with €172 million and €30 million respectively.
In addition to the construction of pumping stations and the extension of the Fayoum governorate’s sewage network, the €448 million programme will rehabilitate ten wastewater treatment plants and build eight new ones. The initiative will allow for the extension of an additional 3,380 km of sewerage network, the installation of 139 pumping stations and the purchase of 350 disposal trucks to cover rural areas not served by the sewerage network.
Inès Magoum