Throughout our discussion, Abu Zied constantly underlines the importance of public awareness. Rationalisation can be achieved when you convince people of its importance. There are concrete examples to prove the point. In certain areas where irrigation was streamlined people continued to use the same quantity of water even though it was no longer necessary. Abu Zied emphasised that rationalisation would not be achieved in Egypt by putting a price on water.
People pay for a service.
For drainage they have paid since the sixties and for new irrigation since 1975. They pay the total cost in instalments. This of course is not applicable in the case of the main canal which is subsidised by the government. The minister remains relaxed that all that should be done is being done, and is perfectly happy to answer critics of national water policy such as Rushdi Said, who argue that industry and urban development should be moved to the desert, clearing the delta for agriculture. They are impractical however, and he has been away for a long time.