In the course of a protocol he signed with Hūssām Mūghāzi Egypt's minister of water resources and irrigation for an awareness campaign to save the Nile river from encroachment and pollution, and few weeks before his scheduled visit to Ethiopia in September, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of St. Mark Diocese highlighted the importance of the Nile for the country, pointing out that the Coptic liturgy celebrates "Lāylat al-Nuqtah”, or the Night of the Drop, which is dedicated to the Nile when the river is at its lowest level and the inundation period starts. “We pray to God, asking him to preserve the waters of the Nile, and in our hymns of ́Ushyia (intercession), we implore God to bless also the valleys, rain falls, and wells,” the Patriarch added.