No single topic led the conversation on the airwaves yesterday, leaving the talking heads to diversify their agendas.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam featured heavily in Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s keynote speech on the opening day of Cairo Water Week yesterday, wherein the PM reiterated the necessity of reaching a binding legal agreement on the framework for filling and operating the dam, Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal noted. Madbouly called on technical experts to share their recommendations for the negotiations with Sudan and Ethiopia based on precedents set by other issues pertaining to share water supplies (watch, runtime: 2:07). The dam is expected to be the topic of further discussions at the conference but there are no new developments in Egypt’s discussions with Sudan and Ethiopia, Irrigation Ministry spokesperson Mohamed El Sibai told Assal. El Sibai also noted the ministry will honor farmers who have been using modern irrigation methods to rationalize water at the conference (watch, runtime: 5:30).

No new covid-19 cases have been reported among students of public and national schools and universities, whose academic year began on Saturday, Education Minister Tarek Shawki told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa. Shawki reiterated that there are strict precautionary measures in place at all schools and that, while schools are proceeding with a hybrid learning model, this plan could change if any “emergency” crops up (watch, runtime: 11:18).

Egypt Post’s ongoing facelift: The government has been working to upgrade Egypt Post’s branches and offices across the country and will then move on to developing the post office’s services, CIT Minister Amr Talaat told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib. The ministry is looking to make Egypt Post an outlet for government services such as issuing subsidy ration cards, registry services, and traffic department services such as renewing car and driving licenses — all of which are currently available online, Talaat noted (watch, runtime: 2:37).

State-owned Nisr Tires is manufacturing more tires here at home, Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik told 90 Minutes’ Osama Kamal in a lengthy interview that covered the ministry’s plans for all companies under its purview. According to the minister, Nisr Tires is working with the Arab Organization for Industrialization and the Military Production Ministry to manufacture more tires for heavy machinery and passenger cars at two factories. The first phase of the plan is to manufacture five mn tires and eventually reach 7.7 mn tires per year, which is around half of Egypt’s tire consumption needs (watch, runtime: 3:53). Tawfik also discussed the ministry’s EV production plans (watch, runtime: 7:35) and how the ministry is repurposing the defunct El Nasr for Export & Import as a marketing arm for public and private sector manufacturers looking to export their wares, including by creating an electronic catalog (watch, runtime: 3:47). You can catch the full interview here (watch, runtime: 1:53:40).