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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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OPENING THE FLOODGATES:
Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar's portrayal of the High Dam may be seen as a deliberately over-the-top image of totalitarian ambitions; others prefer to see it as an expression of the awe aroused by Gamal Abdel-Nasser's brainchild. In either case, the sheer grandeur of the project cannot be denied.
Thirty years after work on the first phase was completed, the Dam is still seen as a watershed in national history. On 16 January, celebrations were held to mark the occasion, and the third anniversary of the Toshka mega-project. Several personalities were honoured, among them the late Mohamed Sidqi Soliman, former prime minister and minister for the High Dam.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, minister of water resources and irrigation, said that the High Dam has guaranteed Egypt's water policy through to 2017. The massive undertaking cost more than LE450 million to build, but the investment has been recouped many times over: in five years of potential severe drought, the Dam has provided Egypt with water worth LE9 billion and electricity worth LE4 billion.
New projects, too, are allowing the irrigation of ever wider tracts of land. In Toshka, 540,000 feddans have been reclaimed; of these, over 250,000 have been set aside for investors, and negotiations are ongoing with several firms to allocate the rest of the land.
Work on the third branch of the Sheikh Zayed Canal will begin soon. Investment proposals are still flooding in, but the state has set down certain conditions for projects in Toshka, notably the use of Egyptian labour and locally manufactured components.
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