The United Nations Human Rights Council will examine Egypt's water and sanitation record today as UN Special Rapporteur Pedro Arrojo-Agudo is set to present findings from his official visit in February—the first to the country by a mandate holder since 2009.

Arrojo-Agudo’s report acknowledges the significant expansion of water and sanitation infrastructure over the past decade, but highlights growing concerns over unequal access, government spending priorities, water management in the Nile Delta, plans to increase private-sector involvement, and restrictions on public access to water quality data.

During the February mission, the Special Rapporteur conducted field visits and consultations across Cairo, Kafr El-Sheikh, El Fayoum, Aswan, and Qena, meeting with representatives from government ministries, public institutions, international bodies, academia, local communities, and civil society organizations.

Among participating groups was the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), which engaged with the Special Rapporteur during his visit and throughout the preparation of the final report. 

EIPR submitted a memorandum to the Rapporteur as a contribution to his report to be discussed in Geneva today. The memorandum focused on inequalities in water distribution and sanitation services, the sector’s regulatory framework and the impact of government water policies on residents and small farmers. It also raised concerns about privatization, the absence of independent regulatory oversight, water tariff-setting mechanisms and the expansion of prepaid meters, particularly their impact on poorer households. The memo also documented geographical disparities in investment between new urban developments and rural and poorer areas.

EIPR's submission further covers the socio-economic dimensions of water rights, including sector workers' rights, the absence of public consultation, legal barriers to accessing information, and the criminalization of spreading "rumors" about water quality. On agricultural and water policy, the submission warns against investment-driven land reclamation under the "New Delta" project at the expense of the traditional Nile Delta. It details the risks associated with "double extraction" along the Rosetta branch and treated drainage canals, which exacerbate operating costs, pollution levels, soil salinization, and groundwater degradation without proper environmental and social impact assessments. Lastly, the memorandum uses case studies from Mit Rahina, Rashid, and the Bahariya Oasis to illustrate local sanitation crises and water injustice, offering key recommendations to reform sector governance, guarantee data transparency, and safeguard social and regional equity.

The report Arrojo-Agudo is set to present to the Human Rights Council in today's session places special emphasis on inequality, poverty, and misaligned spending priorities in Egypt’s water sector.

The Rapporteur commends the tangible structural expansion of water and sanitation networks, extending special praise to the presidential Hayah Kareema (Decent Life) initiative, which raised urban sanitation coverage from 79% in 2014 to 96% in 2025, and rural coverage from 12% to about 60% over the same period, according to official data. 

However, this infrastructural achievement clashes with geographical and social disparities. The report questions public spending priorities, criticizing the gap between resources allocated to Hayah Kareema and those mobilized by the state for urban megaprojects, demanding budget prioritization for marginalized groups. Illustrating distorted water distribution, the report notes that a resident in the New Giza residential compound receives roughly 2.5 times the per capita share of a resident in Mit Rahina in Badrashin Center, Giza, where reports indicate that about a fifth of households remain unconnected to the network.

The Special Rapporteur rejects arguments from the Egyptian government citing national water scarcity as a justification for failing to satisfy essential domestic needs. He recalled that the UN General Assembly sets the minimum basic requirement for human dignity at 50 liters per person per day, noting that meeting this threshold for Egypt's entire population requires just over 2 percent of the country’s total renewable freshwater resources. The Rapporteur concluded that "although the Government emphasizes the estimate of a structural water deficit of 20,000 hm3/year, this cannot be presented as a barrier to fulfilling the human rights to drinking water and sanitation," emphasizing that "drinking water and sanitation services must be prioritized over agricultural and industrial demands."

The report highlights a heavy environmental toll paid by the country's north, warning that diverting Nile water and Delta drainage toward new desert projects accelerates soil and groundwater salinization, threatening agricultural fertility and drinking water sources for millions. The report explains that seawater intrusion into the Delta aquifer has already reached 100 kilometers inland due to three converging factors: sea-level rise, excessive pumping, and the diversion of freshwater flows, citing a study in the northeastern Delta that found elevated salinity in 64% of tested soil samples and 87.5% of irrigation water samples.

The report also highlights groundwater over-extraction in the Delta, citing roughly 73,000 wells in 2016 that accelerated saltwater intrusion into the coastal aquifer. The Rapporteur warns that the informal operation of many of these wells exposes shallow aquifers to agricultural chemicals, industrial waste, and sewage discharge. 

The Rapporteur consequently questions the social and economic rationale of diverting water from historically productive Delta farmland toward desert reclamation projects, warning that the policy could undermine the long-term sustainability of some of Egypt’s most productive agricultural land. 

On the regulatory front, the Rapporteur raises concern over opening the water sector to private management under Law No. 172 of 2025 (the Law Regulating the Drinking Water and Wastewater Utility), warning that this shift could drive prices beyond the reach of the poorest households. The report warns against automatic service disconnections via prepaid meters, which risk depriving households of water during financial hardship without safeguards guaranteeing minimum essential daily usage. The Rapporteur also criticized the lack of balance in sector governance, noting that commercial companies are represented in the regulation of the sector while consumers and local councils are excluded. He calls for the publication of operating-cost data used to calculate water tariffs as a minimum transparency measure.

The report dedicates a section to information secrecy and its impact on public oversight. Officials informed the Rapporteur that authorities analyze about 13 million water samples annually but do not publish the results due to national security concerns and because the data are too complex for the public. The UN expert rejected this rationale, arguing that authorities have a responsibility to make public health information available in accessible formats and that withholding water-quality data can instead contribute to public distrust. He also pointed to the continued absence of legislation regulating the right to access information, despite constitutional recognition that official data and documents belong to the public.

Transparency is further hampered by punitive legal measures. The report criticizes provisions under Law No. 172 of 2025 that criminalize the dissemination of "rumors" regarding water quality, imposing fines ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 EGP. The Special Rapporteur cautions that such penalties stifle public debate, deter scientific research into water safety, and suppress citizens' rights to report issues or demand accountability.

The report concludes with a comprehensive set of recommendations designed to serve as a corrective roadmap. Key proposals include realigning state budgets and water policies to prioritize clean drinking water and sanitation in underserved regions over new urban expansions and desert reclamation projects, alongside strengthening funding for Hayah Kareema and publishing detailed implementation progress reports.

On environmental protection, the report calls for safeguarding freshwater flows into the Delta and rigorously tackling industrial and agricultural pollution by applying the "polluter pays" principle. On governance and civil rights, the report urges an end to official secrecy by routinely publishing water quality tests, repealing laws that criminalize complaints over service standards, and empowering local councils and residents—particularly women—to participate in decision-making and utility oversight.

Additionally, the UN expert urges authorities to guarantee water rights for all refugees and migrants regardless of legal status, ensure safe water and sanitation access for detainees across prisons and police stations, and strengthen cross-border cooperation and negotiations with states sharing the Nile Basin and the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

To read the UN report in Arabic: https://docs.un.org/ar/A/HRC/63/34/Add.1
To read the UN report in English: https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/63/34/Add.1