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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Rivers of green
By Samir SobhiTHE CURRENT stage of the massive Toshka project, aimed at nothing less than the creation of a new Nile Valley, is far from completion, yet work is proceeding apace. Samir Sobhi was there.
President Hosni Mubarak has visited the site several times, and will be returning there within the next few days to inspect the winter crops and see how work on the Sheikh Zayed Canal is progressing.
Controversy has surrounded the project, with press criticism spearheading an often vocal opposition. On the ground, in the deep Egyptian south, the capital city's squabbling is only very faintly heard. There seems little time for it, as 3,000 workers and engineers, 16 tractors and two giant drilling machines work around the clock.
The project's effectiveness, one assumes, will speak for itself. But the government is unshaken in its determination: the time has come for Egypt to break out of the confines of the narrow strip of land which continues to hold the vast majority of the country's population, administration and economic activities.
(photo: Samir Sobhi)The Council on National Projects, headed by Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, has announced that 200,000 feddans of land will be sold on easy terms after reclamation work is completed. Planners foresee that the new waterway will channel 55,500 cubic metres of fresh water a year into previously arid areas, and bring the number of cultivated feddans in Egypt up to eight million.
