Dr. Sayed Ismail, Deputy Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities for Infrastructure Affairs, participated in the activities of the closing workshop for the first phase of the training program for students of the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, which comes within the framework of the cooperation protocol between the drinking water regulatory body and the Water Research Excellence Center.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Mohamed Hassan Mostafa, CEO of the Drinking Water, Sanitation and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency, Engineer Hassan El-Far, Head of the Executive Authority for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Dr. Mostafa Refaat, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for Education and Student Affairs, Dr. Ahmed Al-Sabbagh, Vice Dean for Community Service and Environmental Development, and Dr. Mahmoud Hegazy, director of the interdisciplinary programs, Dr. Hoda Soussa, director of the Water Research Excellence Center at the Faculty of Engineering, and a group of faculty members and honored students.

Dr. Sayed Ismail explained that the first phase of the training program is a first step in activating the provisions of the protocol, which comes within the sector’s vision by supporting the field of scientific research and the participation of specialized Egyptian universities in discussing some issues of drinking water and sanitation, in addition to the sector's interest in training as one of the human development tools required during this stage.

Dr. Sayed Ismail stressed the unprecedented boom that the Egyptian state has witnessed in the last 7 years in the implementation of drinking water and sanitation facilities projects, which have contributed to raising the rates of drinking water and sanitation services in urban and rural areas, and the arrival of the service with the required quality throughout the Arab Republic of Egypt, and he explained that 40% of the sewage in the Egyptian countryside has been covered, and by the end of the first phase of the Good Life initiative, it is expected to reach a coverage rate of 60%.

For his part, Dr. Mohamed Hassan, CEO of the Drinking Water, Sanitation and Consumer Protection Regulatory Authority, explained that a cooperation protocol was signed between the regulatory body and the Water Research Center of Excellence, and the protocol stipulates that students of the Faculty of Engineering will be trained at the sites of drinking water, desalination and industrial and sewage treatment plants. Practical training to serve the Faculty curricula needs and in line with the activities of the regulatory body.

Dr. Mohamed Hassan added that the second area of ​​cooperation comes through benefiting from scientific research that supports the needs of the drinking water and sanitation sector, so that the regulatory body adopts scientific theses and graduation projects for students of the Faculty of Engineering in areas of common interest, and work together in preparing and developing codes for business Water and sanitation in cooperation with the National Center for Housing and Building Research, as well as the formation of joint research teams between the Agency and the Faculty of Engineering to develop products and services within the scopes of work provided by the regulatory body.

Engineer Hassan El-Far, Head of the Executive Authority for Drinking Water and Sanitation, indicated that it is important for students to visit the work sites for some of the projects that are being implemented now, in order to maximize the benefit and to identify problems and practical solutions at the stations away from visiting the already existing projects. During his speech, he invited the students to visit the Abu Station Rawash.

For his part, Dr. Mostafa Refaat, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for Education and Student Affairs, explained the necessity of inter-disciplinary interaction, as the Faculty is keen to enhance the role of scientific research and work on intertwining it with practical application by visiting drinking water and sanitation stations.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Sabbagh, Vice Dean of the College of Engineering for Community Service and Environmental Development, expressed his happiness with the training of the first batch, praising the support and efforts provided by the Ain Shams University administration, pointing to the university's keenness to provide a scholarship to its students to keep pace with developments in the educational field at European international universities.

Dr. Sayed Ismail, Deputy Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities for Infrastructure Affairs, Dr. Mohamed Hassan Mostafa, CEO of the Drinking Water, Sanitation and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency, and Engineer Hassan El-Far, Head of the Executive Authority for Drinking Water and Sanitation, praised the training students.