Egypt will establish new financial ties with various parties by 2025 to build 17 solar-powered desalination plants, local reports have said.
The reports said the Egyptian Sovereign Wealth Fund, aka the Egypt Fund, would by 20225 sign new financial partnerships worth $2.5 billion in this regard.
The plants are expected to supply drinking water to people in a country where potable water is often not very readily available.
This is said to be the latest in the country’s list of initiatives to improve the supply of drinking water to its people.
Fresh water resources in Egypt are becoming scarce due to drought, said the reports.
The situation is expected to worsen with the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which will reduce the flow of the Nile.
Egypt is more than 90% dependent on water from the Nile for various purposes, including agriculture and livestock-farming.
The reports quoted Egypt Fund Director General Ayman Soliman as saying that a call for financing would be launched in the first quarter of 2022 for local and international investors.
The 17 seawater desalination plants would provide a total of 2.8 million cu m of drinking water per day to the population.
Given that they will be solar-powered, the plants are also expected to reduce the environmental impact of desalination.
Reverse osmosis, the most common desalination process, is very energy-intensive. This leads to higher drinking water prices.
Solar energy would make it possible to reduce the operating costs of such installations.