Dr. Khaled El Anany – the Minister of Antiquities, Major Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim – Aswan Governor and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green inaugurated the project of groundwater lowering system at Kom Ombo Temple. The project financing is a US aid in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities with a value of 9 million US$ including both sides of the antiquities and groundwater lowering system to preserve this ancient monument.
The Minister and the USAID Administrator thanked the Arab Contractors Company for the quality of the executed works and the success of the project experience. This was in the presence of Sherry Carlin is the USAID Mission Director in Egypt, Thomas Goldberger - Charge d' Affaires of the United States in Cairo, General Hisham Samir Ibrahim - Assistant Minister of Antiquities for Engineering Affairs, Eng. Mohammed El Hosini – Member of the Executive Board of the AC and Eng. Osama Nawar – the Manger of the Dredging Works in the AC. Eng. Osama declared that this project is one of the most important projects which executed by the USAID to preserve the ancient Egyptian monuments. The project duration is 18 months; with a total cost 100 million EGP. The project scope of works includes the followings: the construction of the network of the deep regression line with a length of 1100m to collect water and forwarding it to 3 pumping stations each one of them equipped with a water pump to the drain, then it transferred to the main runner which established on Daraw drain with a total capacity 600m/h. He pointed out that this is an automatic system to control the actual water level. It is a noteworthy that Kom Ombo Temple witnessed many monuments discoveries through the work of the Egyptian mission and the USAID; one of these important discoveries is the ancient pottery workshop, the heads and crowns of King Ramsis II and King Tohotmos III, 2paintings from the sandstone: one of them return to King Seti I who was the second pharaoh of the 19th dynasty; and the other painting of Ptolemy IV.