Egypt lying in the arid region in north east Africa and characterized with its limited water share from the Nile being the most downstream country on the river shared between 10 countries and its mostly non-renewable groundwater resources is facing severe water stress, particularly in light of the escalating demographic growth.  The challenging issues facing Egypt at this stage are at large water scarcity, water pollution, water equity, and safe water supply and sanitation coverage. 

The Egyptian Water Partnership (EWP) is an informal platform to discuss water issues and water policies, exchange information and start joint activities between different stakeholders and water players. 

The mission of the EWP is to Promote sustainable management of water resources at national and local levels, through effective implementation of integrated water resources management principles.  The EWP works in close collaboration to put Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in practice.

EWP will serve as an independent stakeholder platform, a vehicle to promote IWRM principles, capacity building and awareness on IWRM in Egypt.  The Partnership will achieve this in a multi-disciplinary approach by bringing together organizations from a range of backgrounds to share knowledge and develop common vision for facing water problems in a participatory approach.  The EWP aims at making water everybody’s business in Egypt.  EWP is the avenue for public hearing on water related issues and for awareness on water issues and IWRM. 

The priority issues identified for action in the EWP plan of work are:

• confronting Egypt’s water scarcity
• water pollution abatement and protection
• water rights and equity
• partnership towards attaining the water Millennium Development Goals. 

The EWP is a multi-stakeholder platform, which comprises four major categories of partners.  These are:

1.      Governmental institutions (ministries)

2.      Academia and National Consulting Firms

3.      End Users

4.      Other Civil Society Members

The EWP is:

Non profit

Non political

The EWP is hosted in its initial phase by the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) and was funded by the Royal Governmet of the Netherlands.