Posted on November 7, 2022
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) signed on Sunday an MoU on developing Lake Bardawil and the Sinai Peninsula with Egypt-based AlexMar Shipping company and Belgian Dredging International NV, one of the Belgian DEME Group companies.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo and head of the SCA Osama Rabie attended the signing ceremony, which took place on the sidelines of the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), the Egyptian Cabinet said in a statement.
The purpose of the MoU is to study the joint implementation of a project to develop and restore the ecosystem of Lake Bardawil and the Sinai Peninsula. The project will be carried out through collaboration between the public and private sector (known as public-private partnership (PPP)).
It will seek funding opportunities provided by international financing institutions, Rabie said.
Rabie stressed the importance of the project in restoring the vegetation cover and agricultural area in Sinai given the quality of arable soil in the area surrounding Lake Bardawil, which lies on the north coast of the peninsula.
He also shed light on the sustainable impact of the project in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Egypt Vision 2030.
The project will also help secure up to a million job opportunities, Rabie added.
For his part, a representative of Dredging International NV, highlighted the project’s positive and direct effects on the world and its impact on climate change in the countries of the Mediterranean and north and east Africa.
The project will help restore the water cycle and original wind in Sinai and will boost fish production in Lake Bardawil, the Belgian company’s representative added.
Over the past years, Egypt has worked on developing and cleaning lakes nationwide to restore their ecosystems. Egypt also implemented a number of fish-farming projects across the nation to reduce the gap between fish production and consumption, achieve self-sufficiency and reduce fish imports.
