A major objective of the Government of Egypt (GOE) over the last decade has been to upgrade the technical and administrative capacity of local government units to plan, implement, operate, and maintain adequately financed water supply and wastewater systems. Upgraded capacity and greater access to essential services should improve environmental and public health conditions while fostering development of villages. Improving the environmental conditions of rural Egypt is, however, a formidable task. An estimated 40 percent of the rural population is directly served with water supply (1986 Census); less than five percent of the rural population is served by formal wastewater systems (Chemonics Report ENV-R-4). Further, the demand for these services is enormous, as witnessed by the popularity of programs designed to implement these services, and by the prominence of such programs in the GOE's five-year development plans.