EU-Egypt “Aqua Dialogues” inspire young people to tackle pressing water challenges

The EU-Egypt Aqua Dialogues intend to raise awareness and educate young people, in particular university students on the dire need to conserve water and encourage them to come up with innovative solutions to solve Egypt's pressing water challenges. 

Debates on water pollution, new technologies, modernizing agricultural systems and sustainability were held once every couple of months. Participating youths were split into two groups and were asked to come up with innovative solutions to such challenges as water pollution, plastic waste and other water and climate-related issues. The debates encouraged participants to research the topics and explore possible solutions to the challenges. The lively and interactive discussions were facilitated by the EU Jeel Connectors, a network created to help raise awareness around the EU's contributions to a better future for young people across the Southern Neighbourhood. Water experts and public officials working in the water and wastewater sectors were invited to attend. They shared their ideas with the youths and encouraged the youths to express their concerns vis-a-vis government water policies.  

Engineer Waleed Hakiki, Head of the Planning Sector at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, said: "the dialogues gave youths a platform to share their views vis a vis government policies and probe solutions to some of the challenges faced by Egypt such as convincing farmers to do away with wasteful, traditional methods of irrigation." 

Young aspiring entrepreneurs were also invited to take part in water-related business start-up competitions organized by the project. Dozens of youths presented their project ideas before a jury committee with members of the jury giving the potential business owners advice on economic feasibility, impact of the project on the environment and on how to grow and sustain their businesses. “Farawlatec”, one of the winning projects involves hydroponic strawberry farming: cultivating strawberries without soil. This innovative method not only eliminates many of the soil-related challenges but also enables year-round cultivation and more importantly, conserves water. "It is a water efficient farming method, using significantly less water compared to traditional soil-based farming," Ahmed Ouf, Farawlatec Founder and CEO, said.   

Two years on, the Aqua Dialogues have expanded and flourished from a small group of water activists ( approximately 15) to a much larger coalition of water youth ambassadors (130) who are staunch advocates of water and environment conservation. The network of young entrepreneurs has grown and the EU-supported CEEBA water project has connected many the small business owners to private sector enterprises that are committed to mentoring and offering them technical and financial support to help them develop and sustain their businesses. The project comes under the umbrella of EU 4 Water in Egypt and is part of Team Europe initiative for integrated water and food security in Egypt. 

What’s next?  

The journey hasn't ended. The young water advocates are helping spread the messages on water conservation within their own families, social networks and communities, helping effect positive behavioural change. The young entrepreneurs are learning how to grow their businesses while teaching other aspiring business owners how to become successful “water-preneurs” and avoid the mistakes they made earlier in their journeys. What started as a small idea has created a chain-reaction that is leading to larger, positive changes in society.    

#WaterWiseEU campaign 

This story has been submitted by a partner of the #WaterWiseEU campaign. The EU-wide campaign focuses on water resilience, aiming to change the way we see, use and value water. Find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved.

Background  

The Aqua Dialogues were launched by the "Support to the Water Development Partners Group Reform and Strategic Re-orientation" project, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Confederation of Egyptian European Business Association (CEEBA), two years ago at Cairo Water Week 2022.