Dr. Assem El Gazzar gave directions to have an inventory of the equipment and personnel employed in water companies and authorities of the new cities. Besides, Preparing ready teamwork around the clock in the water companies and authorities of the new cities, identification of hotspots and plans for dealing with them, coordination with the Meteorological Commission to prepare for possible dates of rain and the use of equipment by Arab Contractors and all contractors engaged in various projects to use their equipment to cope with the rainfall. In addition to developing plans to recall equipment, and ensure its readiness throughout the day. The Minister of Housing emphasized on the need to review the equipment and requirements. In addition to checking up the readiness of equipment and generators to provide the necessary electricity for cranes and suction pumps. Besides, the coordination with the Traffic Department to support services in streets and squares, providing alternative routes to avoid traffic accumulation, facilitating the works of rainwater response teams and developing plans for cooperation between the water companies in the governorates and the new cities authorities for the use of equipment and labour in hottest areas, where rainwater heavily falls.
The Minister stressed the need to lift the state of emergency and standby at full power in the holding company and its affiliated companies in the governorates, New Urban Communities and the new cities authorities and develop plans to deal with rainfall in the rural areas where the wastewater projects of the presidential initiative “decent life” are implemented. In addition to the preparation of equipment appropriate with the size of streets in these areas. Moreover, setting up quick and urgent solutions to deal with all possibilities. The Minister of Housing pointed out the need to assure the readiness of the dry wells and the middle islands whose levels have been reduced in some new cities as unconventional solutions to absorb rainwater and monitoring the results of these solutions, to assess their success and effectiveness as what’s happened over the past year, and the need to mainstream those solutions in new governorates and cities, depending on the nature of each region, and what is appropriate to it.
Dr. El Gazzar explored the procedure carried out by the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Wastewater and its subsidiaries, which included: Finishing the clearing of rain manholes, repairing any damages on it and installing covers; and clearing networks and manholes of the pumping stations to increase its capacity, maintenance and increase the capacity of the biggest pumping station which receive sewage from the main drains, reviewing the standby generating units, centralization of the shafts, equipment and cars to cover the main axes, squares, outlets and inlets of the bridges, Equipment is positioned in areas where water is expected to be collected from previous experience, preparation of a number of paddles and submersible pumps to cover hot areas, continuous coordination with the Meteorological Authority to know the potential forecasts for rainfall and its intensity, and to raise the level of readiness at the 125 hotline and customer service centers. In addition to the coordination between companies’ emergency rooms, governorate operations rooms and concerned authorities; the deployment of all members of field follow-up teams, clearance teams and stations’ follow-up teams at all work sites according to location priority. The Minister of Housing followed up the procedures taken by the authority and the new cities authorities to cope with the heavy rainfall, that the work is processed within 3 parallel factors (increasing the efficiency of the rain sewage system – crisis and emergency management – rapid reaction units). There is periodical clearance for the drain manholes, addition of manholes in the rain collecting areas and construction of rain manholes with new specs to be appropriate with the amount of the collected water. Periodic and continuous clearance of the gravity lines and drainage manholes covers, reviewing the capacity of the sewage networks for the large disposal of rainwater by strengthening parts of the sewage lines and changing the course of some sub-lines.