CAIRO: The World Bank will provide a $1 billion loan to help bring back foreign direct investment (FDI) to Egypt and another $200 million to support the country's second Integrated Sanitation and Sewerage Infrastructure (ISSIP 2). The $1 billion, which is mobilized by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, will be supporting insurance capacity for the Middle East and North Africa in order to “retain and encourage” foreign direct investment in the region. The agency will also reach out to investors, governments and lenders around the globe, making it clear that they are open for business in the region and to share its global experience of managing political risks. “Restoring investors' confidence is critical to the medium- to long-term economic and social development of the Middle East and North Africa,” said Izumi Kobayashi, MIGA executive vice president, in a statement. “FDI can boost growth and help create much-needed jobs — a particularly acute challenge for the region,” he added. Moreover, the World Bank approved on Friday the ISSIP 2 loan in order to tackle the lack of sewage and sanitation systems in Egypt's rural provinces. The ISSIP 2 initiative will be taking place in four governorates, two in the Delta region and two in Upper Egypt. “We are particularly pleased to continue supporting improved access to sustainable rural sanitation services in Egypt, given its strong linkages to health and environment,” David Craig, World Bank country director for Egypt, Yemen and Dijibouti, said in a statement. The project will eventually provide 1.2 million citizens in the governorates of Menoufia, Assiut, Sohag and Sharqiya with better access to improved sewerage and sanitation systems. Jointly carried out by the National Organization for Potable Water and Sanitary Drainage as well as the Holding Company for Water and Waste Water and its four subsidiaries, ISSIP 2 will construct wastewater infrastructure systems in 19 village clusters across the four governorates. According to separate statement released by the World Bank, only a meager percentage of villages in Egypt have access to safe disposal of wastewater, “much of which is discharged untreated into agricultural drains and canals causing pollution which seriously threatens public health and environment.” The World Bank pointed out that the safe disposal of wastewater in rural areas has become of high priority for the government of Egypt, who has prepared a National Rural Sanitation Master Plan that aims to reach all rural governorates by the year 2037. “In addition, the government's National Rural Sanitation Strategy seeks to prioritize sector investments and provide a roadmap to comprehensive coverage of rural sanitation,” the statement read. “With ISSIP2, the government is scaling up the sanitation coverage in the Delta and Upper Egypt and in the process, building the capacity of the implementing agencies,” said Parameswaran Iyer, senior water and sanitation specialist and the projects Task Team leader. Currently, 10 network sub projects are being tendered in Beheira governorate. Once their construction is finished, they will be connected to the government-funded Lidia wastewater treatment plant. The new ISSIP2 project builds on the lessons of ISSIP1, but further expands on sanitation coverage to the rural, less developed areas of Upper Egypt. With the first $120 million loan in 2008, the World Bank has been helping Egypt's water sanitation and sewage sector by supporting the first Integrated Sanitation and Sewerage Infrastructure Project (ISSIP 1), which covered Beheira, Gharbeya and Kafr El-Sheikh, three governorates located in Egypt's Delta.
