بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ( وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَّكُمْ) صدق الله العظيم

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You are more than welcomed to the opening ceremony of the 34th Annual Conference of Water Treatment Technology held today, which comes this year in conjunction with the celebrations of the 46th Anniversary of the Egyptian glorious victory of October, which witnessed the story of great struggle, determination and perseverance of the great people of Egypt and its valiant armed forces in defending their homeland.

All the deepest appreciation for the efforts and sacrifices made by the military and police officers to maintain security and safety in the country, which was and, still is, appreciated by the great Egyptian people. We are deeply confident in our military and police men that they will always keep their promises, determined to continue to preserve the capabilities of the homeland and face any attempts to devastate the security and stability of the country with all firmness and decisiveness.

We would also like to thank you all for accepting our invitation to attend this important annual event that Abu Qir Fertilizers and Chemical Industries Company used to organize annually for more than thirty years as a kind of its corporate social responsibility to serve the environment and society and the various industrial companies.

I would also like to thank you all for your deepest condolences for the passing away of Chemist. Mohamed Abdallah, former Chairman of Abu Qir Fertilizers and Chemical Industries, and for the passing away of Dr. Ahmed Adel Abd El-Azim, former Chairman of the Advisory Committee for Water Treatment, who were among us during the last conference. May Allah bestow mercy and forgiveness on them.

Water plays a pivotal role in achieving sustainable development, which is one of the most important challenges facing our society in light of the scarcity of water resources and the steady population growth along with the ambitious developmental plans pursued by the Arab Republic of Egypt. Accordingly the water sector was lucky to receive the care and support of the Egyptian government and the industrial companies, along with the gigantic projects for preserving water, such as desalination plants, industrial wastewater treatment plants and all projects aimed at saving and rationalizing water consumption.

Hence, the importance of the annual conference of water treatment technology to shed the light on the efforts and future directions of the water treatment sector and provides a platform for water sector leaders and local and international experts to meet with relevant authorities to present their experiences and best practices in best facing the challenges of the water sector and developing projects to meet the water needs of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Ladies and gentlemen attendance Egypt suffers from a large water gap between the demand for water and its supply sources. The per capita water supply in Egypt has decreased to less than 600 m3 / year with the maintenance of our Nile water share. Thus it is expected that through the coming 30 years, which will witness reaching to about 150 million people, that such water gap will widen and the per capital water supply will fall to less than 350 m3 / year, which is well below the water poverty standard, which makes it a must for everyone to direct and align all our efforts to conserve and develop the water resources.

Maintaining water quality and reducing pollution rates is a top priority for the Arab Republic of Egypt. Accordingly Egypt has reviewed its vision to achieve its sustainable development goals of 2030, which is based on 4 main pillars:

• Rationalizing water consumption of all the available water resources, and maximizing their returns and increasing their efficiency.
• Improving water quality and protecting it from pollution.
• Creating the appropriate environment for the protection of water resources through raising awareness and issuing the necessary legislations.
• Developing new water resources in cooperation with Nile Basin countries and benefiting from the flood water

Hence, we extend our thanks and appreciation to His Excellency President / Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, The President of Egypt, who has set one of his most important priorities the water problem and finding alternative solutions. He has also succeeded in putting the Nahda Dam on the international agenda , where the American administration has confirmed in one of its statements that he Nile Basin has the right to develop economically and prosper, and called on all parties to show goodwill in order to reach an agreement that preserves that right and respects each country's share in the Nile’s water.

Believing in the necessity of directing all our efforts to conserve water, Abu Qir Company for Fertilizers and Chemical Industries has been proactive in this field in line with the state policy, where it studied and implemented several projects that contribute to rationalizing water consumption, from which are:

• Water treatment plant of Abu Qir (1) with a capacity of 450 m3 / hour was launched in 2017.
• The Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) unit, which helps in recycling industrial drainage with a capacity of 650 m3 / hour is underway and has achieved promising results.
• Study of desalination of sea water with a capacity of 100,000 m3 / day.

Abu Qir Company for Fertilizers and Chemical Industries has adjusted its environmental conditions, where three factories were established to liquefy carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere and converted to economic return and treatment of industrial wastewater and reuse, thus the company becomes environmentally friendly in terms of emissions to the air and sea.

The optimal use of water resources contributes to the realization of the industrial strategy to increase the industrial growth rate to 8% annually to meet the shortage of the expected resources against the expected growth in the industrial sector. A number of important axes include reducing the density of materials, energy and water use in industrial production through energy conservation, improving water use efficiency in industrial facilities, developing tools and policies to encourage and regulate the use of water conservation techniques and practices; usually recycling industrial wastewater, reducing water consumption in various industrial stages

It has become a necessity for the industrial sector to work to create more value added for water and adopt unconventional and innovative ways of industrial processes to rationalize and reduce water consumption.

A group of distinguished scientists, experts and specialists in water affairs will attend this conference to present and review the most important scientific researches and developments in the water treatment technology sector to reflect our duty to create an intellectual environment characterized by trust-building and interactivity between all those interested in the water treatment technology

We hope that the topics on the agenda of the conference will meet your interest and needs in the field of water treatment and recycling as well as environmental compatibility of factories and energy conservation through workshops held on the sidelines of the conference or through the sessions of the conference itself. The conference will be go on for 3 days, as from today, where about 30 research papers and several case studies of industrial water problems and how to treat and reuse them will be presented by about thirty researchers from the Arab Republic of Egypt and several Arab and foreign countries.

I am confident that Abu Qir Fertilizers and Chemical Industries Company always strives to unify efforts and build bridges to link the objectives of the conference with the goals of all industrial companies interested in water issues and working on creating an effective partnership and encouraging coordination between different projects to achieve the maximum benefit of such cooperation as well as seeking to develop the awareness of the industrial companies regarding the water related problems and encouraging them for consuming water in un-conventional ways along with investing in the water sector.

I also emphasize that Abu Qir Fertilizers Company is ready to offer its humble expertise and provide all support to all companies, bodies and institutions working for the conservation, rationalization and recycling of water. Once again, I would like to reiterate my thanks and appreciation to such distinguished constellation that I see in front of me, ministers, scientists, heads of institutions, deans, companies, researchers and those interested in modern technology in the field of water and its treatment who all have honored us with their presence, which will have a strong effect on the conference and its sessions.

I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the ministries, authorities, governorates and companies the sponsors of this conference

I would also like to thank the Technical Advisory Committee for Water Treatment, headed by Dr. Hossam Moghazi, former Minister of Irrigation and Chairman of the Committee.

I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the organizing committee of this conference, headed by Engineer/ Amr El Adawy, conference Rapporteur.

I would like stress that you should not miss visiting the touristic and archaeological sites in Alexandria Governorate “The Mediterranean Bride”.

Finally, I wish you all rich discussions, effective recommendations and a good stay. God bless you for the good of our beloved Egypt. God save Egypt and its people.