In October 2020, Ahram Online reported that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi opened a series of national projects to develop the Sinai Peninsula. They included roads, housing complexes, drinking water stations and seawater desalination plants, among them a new facility in the city of El Arish. Also inaugurated were North Sinai's El Bardawil Airport and a 231 km road from the Ahmed Hamdy tunnel to Taba and Nuweiba ports. The occasion was the opening of King Salman International University in Sharm El-Sheikh.
The report showed that in 2020 Egypt treated desalination in Sinai as one element of a broad development programme with roads, housing and universities; the report gave no capacity or cost for the plant.