GENEVA - Egypt has made important steps towards realising the right to clean water and sanitation, a UN expert said today, stressing the crucial role of public data in achieving universal access to safe drinking water.
"I have seen an important legal and institutional framework, as well as a high level of capacity in dealing with challenges affecting the right to drinking water and sanitation," said Pedro Arrojo Agudo, Special Rapporteur on safe drinking water and sanitation, in a statement at the end of his visit to Egypt.
Arrojo Agudo acknowledged the importance of the presidential initiative "A Decent Life" which was launched to develop rural villages and includes 1,814 drinking water and sanitation projects across the country. However, despite promising steps, most agricultural drainage containing nutrients and agrochemical pollutants, as well as industrial discharges, still end up in the Nile and its aquifers.
"I am deeply concerned that areas with major population concentrations, such as Cairo and the Delta area, could be affected by accumulated contamination along the Nile," the expert said.
He noted that it is contradictory to promote new irrigation systems in the desert by diverting significant flows from the Nile Delta in a context characterised by severe water scarcity.
"If the new desert irrigation systems were extended to cover the projected 1.6 million hectares, it would dramatically accelerate the salinisation of the Delta and its aquifers," the Special Rapporteur said.
He welcomed the tiered pricing system, with low costs of drinking water services for basic consumption, stressing that free connectivity and access to a basic supply of safe and drinking water should be established as the norm for those living in extreme poverty.
"The main problems, in particular for those living in poverty, lie in the potability of tap water," Arrojo Agudo said. He also expressed concern that toxic discharges might affect the potability of water in a way that cannot be detected by taste, smell, or immediate health problems.
The UN expert also encouraged the State to provide free access to data, as a matter of public transparency, to ensure a participation and constructive debate on vital issues.
Arrojo Agudo will present his report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2026.
