Six Desalination Plants Planned as the Red Sea Puts Drinking Water Top of the List
The governor says six seawater desalination plants are under way to close the summer supply gap, and has ordered sewage works finished in New Kawthar and Sheraton before any paving starts.
24 September 2026
Work is under way on six seawater desalination plants in the Red Sea Governorate, part of a plan to raise the volume of water produced and steady supply across its towns, Governor Walid El-Barqi said, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Drinking water tops the governorate's priorities for the coming period, he said at a meeting on Sunday to review utilities work and the paving plan. The new plants are meant to narrow the gaps that open when demand climbs - particularly through the summer and the tourist season, when consumption rises fastest.
El-Barqi said the plants are part of a shift towards stable and sustainable sources, using the governorate's position on the coast, alongside work to upgrade the networks and the lines that carry and distribute water.
On utilities, he ordered:
- sewage works in New Kawthar and Sheraton in Hurghada completed quickly, before paving begins there
- no street to be paved until every utility job in it is finished, so newly laid roads are not dug up again
- full coordination between the water, sanitation, electricity, telephone and gas bodies, which are to supply maps of the urban zone
The head of the governorate branch of the National Authority for Potable Water and Sanitary Drainage said sewage works in the Abu Nawas, El-Nour and El-Gohara areas are being put out to tender ahead of construction.
The meeting was attended by the deputy governor, the secretary-general, the head of North Hurghada district, the governor's office director and the head of the Red Sea drinking water and sanitation company.
The report does not say where the six plants will be built, what capacity they will add, when they enter service or what they cost.
The water file has been the coast's most persistent complaint. This site reported on 9 September that direct pumping had started to Hurghada's Mubarak 11 district, and on 6 September that Marsa Alam is to get a solar-powered desalination plant producing 10,000 cubic metres a day. Six more plants is the largest commitment yet - but until capacities and dates are published, it stays a plan.