Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sewilam, and Jordan’s Minister of Water and Irrigation, Raed Abu Al-Saud, who also chairs the Arab Ministerial Council for Water, jointly inaugurated the Third Joint Ministerial Council of Arab Ministers of Water and Agriculture on Wednesday, held as part of the 8th Cairo Water Week.
The opening session brought together senior representatives from the Arab League, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, and the General Assembly of Arab Ministers of Agriculture, alongside ambassadors and experts from several Arab states.
In his remarks, Sewilam welcomed the participants and commended Arab countries for their efforts to strengthen water resource management and advance food security through integrated and efficient governance. He expressed hope that the meeting would produce practical, collective solutions to the region’s intertwined water and agricultural challenges, reaffirming Egypt’s readiness to share its expertise and technical experience.
The minister noted that the challenges of water, food, energy, and the environment are increasingly interconnected, and that the Arab world remains among the most water-scarce regions globally. Over 65% of the region’s water resources originate beyond its borders—through transboundary rivers such as the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, and Senegal—posing significant management challenges.
According to UN reports, 19 of the 22 Arab countries fall below the water scarcity threshold, while over 90% of the region’s population faces critical water stress. Egypt’s per capita water share, he added, has declined to about 500 cubic metres per year.
Sewilam warned that climate change and rapid population growth are compounding these pressures, calling for deeper regional cooperation and joint management of shared water resources within the framework of international law. He also reviewed progress since the 2019 Cairo Declaration, which established a high-level technical committee to coordinate water and agricultural policies across Arab states.
Showcasing Egypt’s “Irrigation System 2.0” initiative, Sewilam described it as a model of the Water–Energy–Food–Environment (WEFE) Nexus, integrating technology and innovation to enhance water management. Egypt, he said, has significantly expanded desalination and advanced water treatment projects to bolster food security, noting that the declining cost of solar energy will make large-scale desalination increasingly viable, particularly for coastal agriculture.
The new system, he explained, aims to improve water-use efficiency while aligning development goals with sustainability and climate adaptation.
Sewilam extended his appreciation to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development for their continued support since the committee’s first meeting in 2019.
He also proposed the creation of joint Arab platforms to exchange data, expertise, and innovations, helping enhance investment efficiency and inform policy decisions. Practical solutions, he said, are essential to strengthen resilience in the water and agriculture sectors—ranging from improving irrigation efficiency and managing water demand to expanding renewable energy use in desalination and promoting climate-smart agriculture.
Sewilam concluded by highlighting Egypt’s achievements, noting that the country has raised overall irrigation efficiency to over 88% through the reuse of about 22 billion cubic metres of agricultural drainage water annually. In addition, Egypt imports crops equivalent to 34 billion cubic metres of “virtual water” to help bridge its food gap—an example, he said, of how regional cooperation can transform shared challenges into opportunities for water and food security.
