The World Bank is supporting Egypt’s ‘polluted villages’ project with $1 billion in loans, a report said.

The funds will be used for the project in Al-Salam Canal in Upper Egypt, and the Rosetta branch of the Nile Delta, Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly was quoted as saying in the Daily News Egypt report.

Several international institutions, including the World Bank, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, European donors and Russian and Chinese companies are keen to take part in water and sanitation projects in the country, the report said.

Madbouly added that final designs of World Bank-funded sanitation projects in the villages of Assiut and Sohag have been concluded, amounting to $200 million.

Approximately three out of 20 houses have safe sanitation, World Bank’s former Egypt director Hartwig Schafer was quoted as saying in the report.