Chairman Abdel Sabour Al-Rawy of the Aswan Drinking Water and Wastewater Company announced during a phone-in on Tuesday a comprehensive plan to cultivate a forest covering 2,000 feddans. He detailed that the plan includes the construction of a three-stage wastewater treatment facility aimed at nurturing hardwood trees and oil plants such as castor.
Rawy mentioned that a private investor has successfully cultivated a forest on 5,000 feddans in the governorate. The investor is growing non-bearing trees, barley, and other types of animal feed, and is utilizing two-stage treated water for irrigation, as reported by Al Watan.
In 2017, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) published a report revealing that Egypt’s wood imports totaled 12,300 tons between 2005 and 2015.
According to a recent master’s thesis, Egypt has developed forests covering an area of over 21,250 feddans, yielding an estimated 8.3 million tons of wood when the trees are harvested at the age of 15.
The study estimates that the country can cultivate 328,300 feddans in forests, producing 3.6 billion cubic meters of treated wastewater annually. Working towards that goal, the government has already allocated 111,7000 feddans for cultivating forests.
