As Egypt continues to make every effort to improve the living conditions of its inhabitants and in line with the National vision of Egyptian development 2030, under the auspices of the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development and the Ministry of Local Development,

Dr. Mostafa Medbouli - Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban communities, and Dr. Hisham Al-Sherif -Minister of Local Development will inaugurate the national conference “River Bank Filtration (RBF) for Drinking Water Supply in Egypt”, organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Program in cooperation with the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Sanitation, and with the attendance of Eng. Mamdouh Raslan, Chairman - Holding Company for Water and Wastewater, and Mrs. Rania Hedeya, Programme manager of the United Nations Office of Human Settlements Egypt office.

Five UN organizations (UN-Habitat, UNIDO, UN-Women, ILO and IOM) have collaborated with the support and cooperation of the Ministry of Local Development and Minya Governorate to develop an example of integrated local development based on the combined protection and empowerment approach for local communities and administrations, through “Hayat project for local development”, funded by  the United Nations Trust Fund and Swiss Development Cooperation.

As part of the project's objectives of supporting and developing the infrastructure, the project was able to provide clean drinking water with innovative technology to 150,000 residents of Al Adwah and Maghagha centers in Minia governorate in less than 6 months and at a cost of less than 5% of the cost of water delivery using traditional technology.

The conference aims to develop a strategic vision for the scale up and replication of the implementation of this technology at the national level, which will save about 2.5 billion Egyptian pounds of the state budget and enable delivery of clean drinking water to more than 3 million people prioritizing vulnerable communities.

The conference calls on donors, international development and research communities to support this project to develop an executive plan that includes the stages of feasibility study for the implementation areas and the transfer of international expertise for planning and implementing these units through a clear system of management, operation and maintenance. This shall ensure sustainability and effectiveness of interventions to enable Egypt to comply with the latest international technologies that ensure economic and environmental efficiency, supporting Egypt’s progress towards development goals in line with the global vision of sustainable development and the envisioned enabling of Egypt’s human rights commitments and achieve prosperity for all its citizens throughout the country.