CAIRO: For the past five years, Egyptian Laila Abdel Maksoud and her family have run a charity offering free meals during the holy month of Ramadan, serving more and more people even as soaring inflation has driven up costs for the organization.
Maksoud said they first started out with 500 meals, but this year they’ve surpassed 4,000 as millions of Egyptians struggle to cope with record inflation.
A severe shortage of foreign currency exacerbated by global factors including a drop in Suez Canal revenue has hobbled the economy over the last two years.
Despite investments from Gulf countries and a financial package from the IMF last month, Egyptians and charities still feel the pinch from soaring prices.
“Every year it’s becoming more expensive and with the current conditions, we don’t know where we’re heading, but we intend to continue,” Maksoud said.
Similarly, Ahmed Farouk, administrative director of the charity Ummat Al-Habib Association that provides families stipends and meals, said costs have surged six-fold, sending more people into poverty.
“There’s a category of people who previously didn’t come (to receive meals), now they started coming,” he said. “I can confirm wholeheartedly that Egypt is moving only because of its people’s good intentions.”
Egyptian charities dish out meals during Ramadan, despite soaring costs
https://arab.news/r4d73
Egyptian charities dish out meals during Ramadan, despite soaring costs
- Despite investments from Gulf countries and a financial package from the IMF last month, Egyptians and charities still feel the pinch from soaring prices
Morocco to secure 60% of water needs from desalination
- Rabat boosts investment in facilities powered by renewable energy, minister tells Marrakech conference
MARRAKECH: Morocco, which has endured seven years of drought, plans to supply 60 percent of its drinking water from treated seawater by 2030, up from 25 percent, its water minister said, as Rabat accelerates investment in desalination plants powered by renewable energy.
The push is crucial to ensure a steady water supply and to maintain Morocco’s status as a key producer and exporter of fresh produce amid climate change, as droughts have dried up some of its main water reservoirs and depleted underground resources.
FASTFACT
The plant will have a capacity of 350 million cubic meters and will supply urban centers in Morocco’s food basket as well as farmlands.
The North African country plans to produce 1.7 billion cubic meters of desalinated water annually by 2030 from projects under construction and plants for which it will hold tenders starting next year, Nizar Baraka said on the sidelines of the World Water Congress in Marrakech.
The largest plant — with planned investment of about 10 billion dirhams ($1 billion) — will be located near Tiznit, 615 km south of the capital Rabat.
It will have a capacity of 350 million cubic meters and will supply urban centers in the country’s food basket as well as farmlands, he said.
“Studies are underway as part of preparations for the plant’s tender, to be announced by mid next year,” Baraka said.
Besides the northern cities of Nador and Tangier, plants are also planned in Rabat in partnership with the French group Veolia, as well as in Tantan, where the government is considering building a port dedicated to green hydrogen and ammonia exports, Baraka said.
Morocco currently operates 17 desalination plants producing 345 million cubic meters annually.
Four additional plants are under construction with a combined capacity of 540 million cubic meters, scheduled to be ready by 2027, including a major facility in Casablanca, the country’s most populous city.
“All new desalination plants will be powered by renewable energy,” Baraka said.
Morocco has also faced rising temperatures and worsening evaporation in dams.
To counter this, it installed floating solar panels on a dam near Tangier to reduce evaporation, which accounts for 30 percent of the country’s surface water loss, according to the minister.
“The experiment will be expanded to include dams in the south and mountainous regions,” Baraka said.
