Egypt and the Netherlands: fifty years of learning from each other

On 27 August, an Egyptian water delegation travelled throughout the Netherlands as part of the 50th anniversary of Dutch-Egyptian water cooperation. During the visit, the long-standing relationship was evident with lively, familiar and open discussions. The setting could hardly be more fitting. At Van Oord in Rotterdam, the Nieuwe Maas flows past the windows as the focus turns to coastal protection. At Evides, drinking water takes centre stage and near the North Sea, seawater itself becomes the subject.

Similarities

There are clear reasons why Egypt and the Netherlands have kept finding each other. “It is a very good cooperation,” stresses Dr. Walid Hakiki of Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. “We have low-lying delta areas, saltwater intrusion – there are a lot of similarities.” Yet similar challenges do not necessarily call for identical approaches. That becomes clear in the delegates questions about costs, scale and what would actually work in Egypt.

At Van Oord, the Dutch marine contractor involved in projects including Dubai’s Palm islands and the reinforcement of the iconic Dutch Afsluitdijk, the conversation moves from sand nourishment to mangroves and the potential of combining conventional coastal defences with Nature-based Solutions. For Eng. Mohammed Ghattas of the Shore Protection Authority, this is particularly relevant. Egypt has traditionally relied heavily on grey structures. “In the past, when we started protecting our coast, we went for hard measures, not soft measures,” he says. “Turning our mind set to soft measures needs a lot of work.”

The Dutch Sand Engine generates critical questions. Why has it not been replicated more often? What would it cost in Egypt? And would it work on a different coastline? Van Oord, visibly pleased by the delegation’s concrete interest, responds that there is no ready-made formula: waves, currents, morphology and the availability and type of sand all matter.

Knowledge partner

At Evides and VEI, attention shifts to organisation. The visitors want to understand how Dutch water utilities cooperate and divide responsibilities. For Mahmoud Mehany of the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater, the institutional dimension is crucial. “What we need more of is discussions around institutional arrangements: how will the governance work? Who will do what? That is really important.” The point is not to copy the Dutch model, but to see what can be adapted to Egypt.

During a lunch of fresh fish in Scheveningen’s picturesque harbour, Jasmin Nasser of Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation sees opportunities precisely because much remains to be investigated together. “The solution is site-specific, so more research and testing should be done in other areas to determine exactly what guidelines we should follow,” she says. Egypt could therefore become not just a recipient of Dutch expertise, but a testing ground and knowledge partner.

The right decision

For Prof. Sherif Mohamady of the National Water Research Center one idea stands out in particular: the digital twin, a virtual representation of a water system that supports monitoring and decision-making. “I would love to see that happening in Egypt,” he says. As climate change makes water management more unpredictable and extreme events more frequent, such tools can help “take the right decision at the right time”.

The final visit of the day, to Elemental Water Makers, brings the conversation to desalination. The company develops small-scale desalination systems designed to use less energy and operate without added chemicals. The delegation wants to know where such technology would add value in Egypt. At what scale does it work? What does it cost and what happens to the brine? One passible application is small, remote coastal communities – provided the technology proves practical and cost-effective.

The exchange goes both ways. As drought becomes a growing concern in the Netherlands, Dr Hakiki sees something Egypt can offer. “Drought is something Egypt has been dealing with for quite some time,” he says after a short and quite noisy demonstration of how Elemental Water Makers’ technology turns seawater into drinking water. “That is experience Egypt can bring to the table as well.”

What becomes very clear over the course of the day is that there is enough awareness to recognise common challenges and enough trust to keep questioning each other’s approaches. The following morning, the conversations continued at the high-level meeting, with ideas to test, approaches to adapt and questions the two countries can answer together.