March 2007 -- The Second National Drainage Project - NDP II (2000 -2008), is financed by about US$ 278.5 million in the form of loans from IBRD, KFW, and the European Investment Bank, in addition to a grant from the Netherlands and a Government contribution of about US $ 134.8 million equivalent. The project addresses the challenges related to drainage. It aims at addressing the need to implement measures that would ensure efficiency and environmental sustainability in both management and utilization of Egypt’s water and arable land resources which are key components of the 1993 Egypt Agriculture Sector Strategy and the 1997 Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). A total of about 400,000 farm households (small holders) are expected to benefit from the project. The Project’s Development Objective is to increase the drainage efficiency of about 0.8 million feddans of irrigated land in the Delta and Nile Valley by: a) increasing the agricultural productivity of about 0.8 million feddan of irrigated land through improving drainage conditions via evacuation of excess irrigation water by subsurface drains into existing open drains; and b) avoiding yield and production losses on this land which would result if water logging and soil salinity problems were to persist. This project addresses the issue of improving agricultural drainage at the farm level which entails resort to covered drainage using pipelines, and deepening and remodeling existing open
surface drains to ensure that drainage water collected from irrigated lands by the subsurface drains is conveyed out of the project area and into the drainage system and its outfall. Environmentally, the project is expected to have a major positive impact through reducing the groundwater level in farmers’ fields to prevent water logging and salinity build up in irrigated areas as well as improving soil quality by enabling the evacuation of saline water and its conveyance into the drainage system. In addition, the project will reduce the adverse effects on people’s health due to disease vectors in standing water in surface on-farm open drains which will be replaced by sub-surface field drains. It will identify sources of external pollution of the existing open drainage systems
in the project areas and prepare an action plan to address them. The project will also support the
implementing agency’s environmental unit in the implementation of the Environmental Management
Plan (EMP) and their site-specific environmental reviews. In terms of institutional capacity building, the project supports a number of institutional reform policies, namely: i) formation of Drainage Beneficiaries Group; ii) improved efficiency of procurement while encouraging competition; and iii) establishment and enforcement of sound environmental guidelines. The design of the project has taken the issue of sustainability into account. The project directly addresses the efficient use of water and land resources for agricultural production. Sustainability is closely linked to the optimum use of soil and water resources which has been achieved by the earlier Bank-supported projects that assisted in improving farm incomes, thus enabling beneficiaries to participate in the cost sharing arrangements and ensuring financial stability and sustainability of the drainage program. The implementing agency is responsible for the O&M of drainage works, provision of equipment, training of staff and technical assistance and is therefore provided with an annual budget for O&M costs of the drainage system. In addition, proceeds from the land tax system
assist with the provision of the necessary budgetary support for the O&M costs of the irrigation and drainage system. Progress to-Date indicates that, after around 6 years of implementation, the project continues to show steady progress. Indicators demonstrate that the project would meet its development objectives. Yield increases have exceeded the targets. Groundwater tables as well as salinity levels have been lowered as anticipated. To elaborate, the total contracted areas for new sub-surface
drainage currently stand at 423,185 feddan (about 84% of the total proposed area) of which the completed area is about 338, 240 feddan (around 68% of the total area). The total contracted areas for rehabilitation of sub-surface drainage currently stand at 405,415 feddan (about 138% of the total proposed area) of which the completed area is about 330,445 feddan (about 110% of the total proposed area). The total contracted area for open drains works currently stands at 365,255
feddan (about 100% of the total area) of which an area covering about 346,185 feddan has been completed (about 95% of the total area). This compares with about 85% of time elapsed between loan effectiveness and closing date. Implementation of the environmental component has also witnessed progress in terms of internal capacity building, training, as well as implementation of the pilot EMP. In addition, training targeting EPADP using the national budget and through different donor-funded projects has been ongoing. Furthermore, the Management Information System (MIS) related to planning and follow-up functions and drains database are in place. The implementing agency is also expected to expand the M&E activities by integrating the benchmarking concept (introduced in 2005) that includes, amongst others, financial, operational, socioeconomic and environmental factors. Moreover, noticeable developments pertain to: i) private sector participation in the maintenance of small open drains; an activity for piloting the early phases of the Private Sector Participation Strategy and Action Plan which will allow for more involvement of small contractors in maintenance activities as well as reduce dependence on large contractors and EPADP force account; and ii) farmers’ participation through formation of collector users associations. Challenges Encountered during Implementation pertain to the devaluation of the Egyptian pound as mentioned above resulting in few delays. Today, the project implementation has recovered and few contracts only are suffering delays. It is worth noting that Egypt’s experience in addressing challenges pertinent to drainage is the most
successful by all measures. All World Bank projects targeting drainage represent a classical case of success which was complemented by other donors’ efforts, for example, the Dutch, who focused on research. The system - as it stands today - is very well established and well progressive. Pipes are now manufactured locally and so are all other required materials. |
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