Highlighting the state's achievements in the energy sector, Sisi said the problem of power outages in summer over the past two years was not due to the state's failure to produce enough electricity, rather it was attributed to "the exchange rate liberalization."

"The state provides electricity to people at a 'quarter' of its actual price," the president said. He also noted that gas cylinders are offered to citizens at "half" their actual price.

Sisi added that huge efforts had been made recently to build a stronger state, after a two-year hiatus in the development process.

He explained that over the past ten years, the state's infrastructure has been improved and rehabilitated to press ahead with its development process as a developing, not an underdeveloped, nation.

As for the water sector, Sisi noted that Al Mahsama wastewater treatment plant (the largest in the eastern Suez Canal region) has the capacity to treat up to 1 million cubic meters of water a day, while Bahr el-Baqar treatment plant, the largest agricultural wastewater treatment plant in the world, has a daily treatment capacity of 5.7 million cubic meters.

He also pointed out to a plant which carries out tertiary filtration of wastewater at a daily capacity of 7.50 million cubic meters, emphasizing the importance of these and other water treatment plants for addressing the problem of “water poverty” in Egypt, where annual per capita water consumption amounts to 500 cubic meters. (MORE)

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