Since 2004 the Government of Egypt has embarked on a series of water sector reform efforts, including establishing the national Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW) and water and wastewater companies (WWC), to bolster the Egyptian Water Regulatory Authority. These efforts aimed to improve the quality of service and achieve financial sustainability of the sector. However, the WWC have varied in their ability to meet performance targets, manage their assets, and fully recover their operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.
Benefits
- Benefit 18 million people with water sector improvements
- Upgrade asset management and achieve full financial automation
- Achieve full O&M cost recovery
- Increase WWC’s ability to produce and update business plans
- Update customer databases and increase bill collection
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Integrated Water Solution Support Technical Assistance (IWSSTA) project, running from 2019-2023, works with Tetra Tech to develop partnerships with HCWW and WWC in the Upper Egyptian Governorates of Minia, Sohag, Assiut, Qena, and Luxor to improve the performance of these water service providers serving 18 million people.
Through IWSSTA, Tetra Tech is helping strength the institutional capacities of the five partner WWC, and their 23,000 staff, to:
- Deliver technical assistance and capacity building to improve business planning, financial management, and operational efficiency
- Provide automated systems to modernize various utility management systems and customer databases
- Supply equipment to control and monitor water loses, increase the ability of water laboratories to conduct accurate and compliant water quality testing, and facilitate quick maintenance of machinery
The project will continue to deliver an integrated package of services that ensures increased automation is accompanied by adequate capacity building to use newly installed systems. Through our cooperation with USAID and HCWW, IWSSTA achievements will be scaled up and rolled out to benefit the other 20 WWCs in Egypt.