That's not a question for the water companies in Egypt: they have to build. The population in Egypt increases every nine months by one million. More people means more water and more waste water. It is hard to keep up. New waste and drinking water treatments, new networks and new laboratories appear almost every month. The investments are appointed by a large central government. In practice this means many years on a waiting list, and again many years of haggling before a new plant actually is designed, procured, constructed and transferred. It drives you crazy. Fortunately, the water companies get into control more and more, which usually makes the process much faster. Also because the chair person visits the construction site frequently and encourages people to work fast.
Every first monday of the month no water
Where there is many building, operating and maintaining, the demand for asset management increases. Therefore, asset manager Sanne Hillegers joined the mission. Together with Kees van der Drift and the asset managers-to-be of Beheira Water And Drainage Company she tries to find out what the ideas of the people are and what resources they have. First they have to determine exactly what they want to achieve with their assets, then how to do that in a smart way, and eventually they have to bring it in practice. The requirements for the installations are quite different than those in the Netherlands. Planned maintenance and unplanned failures are more accepted than in the Netherlands. For example, last night there was no water from the tap, because a new treatment was connected to the distribution network. Since there is a lot of building going on here, this for sure will not be the last time. Flushing the toilet with water from a bucket is a minor inconvenience. Fortunately, our colleagues from BWADC warned us. In Damietta Water Company they also found a clever way to maintain the water distribution and water treatment plants: every first Monday of the month there is no water. Mavish muskela, no problem, because everyone knows it. It’s just a matter of filling your bucket in time. So every time you here the monthly siren in the Netherlands... Next time, we have to ask if they then also maintain the sewers and wastewater treatment plants too. Because no drinking water consumption of course means (almost) no waste water. And it hardly rains here in Egypt.
Greetings from the beautiful Damanhur, with water from the tap and in our toilet,
Ramon Imamdi
Sanne Hillegers
Kees van der Drift
René van der Aa
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Field notes
Egypt supports Oranje!
14.07.2010
Damanhur, Egypt, Sunday eve, THE eve of the Dutch national team. After a sandwich shoarma at Abu Rabi fast food corner we go quickly to the stadium. S...
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