Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, received Muhammad Abdul Ati, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation.

At the beginning of the meeting, Abdul Ati congratulated the Grand Imam on his return to the homeland, after a medical trip to France, during which he underwent an eye surgery, praying to Allah Almighty to grant His Eminence health and wellbeing.

Abdul Ati praised the speech of the Grand Imam, with which he addressed the Fourth Conference of Water Ministers held by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, to raise citizens’ awareness of the importance of water conservation and the dangers of water waste. He expressed his aspiration for continued cooperation between Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in order to educate people about the importance of water in their lives and the need to rationalize consumption, and its impact on society. It is worthy of mention that there is a cooperation protocol between Al-Azhar and the Ministry, to promote religious awareness to conserve the Nile water.

The Grand Imam, for his part, said that water conservation is a religious concern in the first place, in addition to being an issue of national security, as water is one of the necessary resources for the life of all humanity. He pointed out that water is a public property, and it is not acceptable in any case, and under any circumstances, that the resources necessary for life be left to an individual, a group, or a nation to have total control of, to the exclusion of other states that share such resource. His Eminence emphasized Egypt’s right to claim its share of the Nile water as it is the lifeblood for Egyptians. He praised President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, in which the President demanded Egypt’s rightful share of the River Nile, and stressed that Egypt will not accept the policy of imposing a fait accompli.