Egypt Calls for Bolstering Political, Diplomatic Cooperation in Water Management

Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation honors farmers and researchers at the conclusion of the 4th Cairo Water Week. (Egyptian Government via Facebook)
Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation honors farmers and researchers at the conclusion of the 4th Cairo Water Week. (Egyptian Government via Facebook)
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Egypt Calls for Bolstering Political, Diplomatic Cooperation in Water Management

Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation honors farmers and researchers at the conclusion of the 4th Cairo Water Week. (Egyptian Government via Facebook)
Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation honors farmers and researchers at the conclusion of the 4th Cairo Water Week. (Egyptian Government via Facebook)

Egypt called for bolstering political and diplomatic dialogue and technical cooperation in the field of managing shared water resources.

According to a cabinet statement, the 4th Cairo Water Week concluded on Friday and issued recommendations underscoring the importance of relying on smart techniques supported by information technology to improve water management effectively.

It further stressed the need to expand the use of remote sensing techniques, which help in obtaining data at the lowest cost possible, and digitize the water sector.

It is essential to address the factors affecting the future of the water sector (namely, population increase and climate change), while prioritizing this sector, being the most affected by climate change, and placing it at the top of the international agendas, the statement read.

Meanwhile, talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the operation and filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) have once again faltered.

Cairo and Khartoum demand that the three countries reach a legally binding agreement to fill and operate the dam and fear the dam’s impact on their water shares.

In mid-September, the UN Security Council called on Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to resume negotiations under the auspices of the African Union, stressing the need to reach a binding agreement on the filling and operation of the mega dam within a “reasonable timetable.”

The European Union had on Thursday called on the three countries to return to the GERD negotiations.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.