Toshka Project Reviving with Cooperation of Private Sector

Toshka is a large-scale national project that aims to improve Egypt's ability to deal with its rapidly growing population.

The national project has been revived by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the government planted wheat in these new areas in a bid to help Egypt's agriculture system with nearly half a million tons.

During the inauguration ceremony of a number of land reclamation projects in Upper Egypt's Toshka, President El-Sisi said: "Three years before the inauguration of this massive project, the state decided to revive the Toshka agriculture project in cooperation with the private sector."

In the same spirit, he revealed that the government will provide support and conduct the necessary studies to reclaim more than 400,000 acres in the “Branch 4” area in Toshka.

He also pointed out that ornamental plants will no longer be cultivated in Toshka.

About 60% of the cultivable land will be given to youth and national firms, 1 acre each, funded by the Long Live Egypt Fund.

Speaking to journalist and talk show host Ahmed Mousa on Sada Elbald Channel, Awar Amin, the Chairman of Al Madar Engineering LLC, a construction company, said: "The works of construction, digging, engineering consultancy, as well as irrigation works, continue without stopping and all filtration systems are provided by both the government and the private sector."

The project also aims to develop the private sector and maximize its role in serving Egyptian farmers.

According to former Egypt's governments' studies, the canal inlet starts from a site 8 km to the north of Toshka Bay (Khor) on Lake Nasser. The canal is meant to continue westwards until it reaches the Darb El-Arbe'ien route, then northwards along the Darb El-Arbe'ien to the Baris Oasis, covering a distance of 310 km.

But, as of April 2012, the canal is still 60 km short of the Baris Oasis. The Mubarak Pumping Station in Toshka is still the centerpiece of the project and was inaugurated in March 2005.

It pumps pure water from Lake Nasser to be transported by way of a canal through the valley to serve transforming 2340 km2 (588,000 acres) of desert into agricultural land.

The essential dilemma was that the granite mountain and rock barrier located in the middle of the Toshka water channel, as well as the Western Desert's high saline levels and the presence of underground aquifers in the area, act as major obstacles to any irrigation project.

The granite mountain would reduce access to potable water for the rest of the land. There is also the difficulty that the clay minerals found in the soil are posing technical problems for the big-wheeled structures moving around autonomously to irrigate the land, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

But fortunately, the state has considered the matter and managed to reduce and remove these barriers to developing its wheat harvest.