Corridor of Development
Is the “Corridor of Development” Project a White Elephant Doomed to Fail?
The Egyptian scientific community has raised concerns about the amount of money that the current government is planning to spend on the Corridor of Development complex project which will an initial budget of US$24 billion. We believe that this amount (assuming that we have it in our reserve) is exorbitant and should be used to address massive poverty and other social crises in the country.
We should ask ourselves is this a government ego-trip wasting valuable resources needed for healthcare, housing, youth employment and workforce development and education?
We are a poorly managed and under-developed country where three square meals a day is a problem for more than 40% of the population. Investing in this type of venture will not help Egypt in the long run but will rather create more problems similar to the ones attached to the planning and implementation and management of the Nubariah and Moderiat El Tahreer, Al Wadi El Gadeed, Taameer Sinai, the Red Sea, Toshka and Ganoub El Saeed or Upper Egypt Projects.
I just wonder how many millions of dollars found their way into the pockets of the past corrupt regimes and business men since 1952, in addition to the huge amounts said to have been spent on building unsuitable, inefficient and unusable infrastructure for more than 50 years. We lack sustainable thinking at both our legislative and executive branches of the Egyptian Government. Why shouldn’t we solve the inherited problems of Egypt without always escaping to the desert carrying with us the same brain faults and malfunctions? What is wrong with our desert the way it is? Why don’t we add more beauty to our fascinating deserts and consider it for future generations as the great tourism attraction?
Let us get rid of massive poverty first, massif illiteracy and massif ill-planning problems!!
This is another monstrous White Elephant being created to juice Egyptian Taxpayers of Hundreds of Billions of pounds. Note this Project cannot be constructed without Massive Subsides and increase of our national debt which would have to be paid over the next 2-3 decades. It would lead to Billion Dollar Contracts for the Involved Companies and More Billions in Profits over the Lifetime of the Project
It is shocking that a temporary Prime Minister like Dr. Essam Sharaf announced with great fanfare the launch of the “Corridor of Development” mega project, designed by Dr. Farouk al-Baz without consulting the elected representatives for the future national assembly or the Egyptian people and after sufficient stud and debates among our national and international scientific communities.
Let go back and look into The New Valley Toshka project which consists of building a system of canals to carry water from Lake Nasser to irrigate the sandy wastes of the Western Desert of Egypt, which is part of the Sahara Desert. In 1997 a corrupt Egyptian government decided to develop a "new" valley (in addition to the Nile Valley) where agricultural and industrial communities could be developed. It was an ambitious project that as presented, should help Egypt deal with its rapidly growing population. In reality the project as it was designed is doomed to fail because it will exacerbate problems of allocating the scarce waters of the Nile.
The canal inlet starts from a site lying 8 km to the north of Toshka Bay (Khor) on Lake Nasser. The canal continues westward until it reaches Darb el-Arbe'ien route, then moves northward along Darb el- Arbe'ien to the Baris Oasis, covering a distance of 310 km. The Mubarak Pumping Station in Toshka is the centerpiece of the project and was inaugurated in March 2005. It pumps water from Lake Nasser to be transported by way of a canal through the valley, transforming 2340 km² (588,000 acres) of desert into agricultural land. When the Toshka Project is completed in 2020, the valley is projected to become home to more than three million residents and to increase Egypt's arable land area by 10%. What a big lie!! Let us ask Prince Waleed Ben Talal about these projections? It is obvious that the cost (particularly cost of upkeep) exceeds its usefulness, and it is therefore now a liability.
Many of these ‘big,’ ‘iconic’ projects too frequently degenerate into what has been described as ‘white elephant’ projects. ‘White elephant’ projects are not only often large and expensive to build and take longer than originally estimated, but also form a ‘prestige’ so dominate over function that the project never performs satisfactorily either in terms of stated role, unclear as it is often is, or financially. Parts of the Toshka project have already been completed. The Mubarak pumping station, shown here under construction, was completed in 2005:
However, the Toshka project raises some critical issues for Eco-Justice. The first, and most important, is the issue of water use. As many as 200 million people in northeast Africa rely on the waters of the Nile for their livelihood. Egypt's claim to a lion's share of the Nile waters is based on a 1929 treaty with the colonial British government and a 1959 treaty with Sudan. Today, Egypt is at or above its share of the Nile waters based on the 1959 treaty.
Other African countries would like a greater share of the Nile's waters. Counties in northeast Africa have populations that are growing at about 2% per year and are facing increasing food insecurity as a result of global climate change. Ethiopia, in particular, has created a series of microdams that are designed to decrease the rainfall dependency and alleviate food insecurity in drought prone areas of the region.
The constructions of Egypt’s Toshka Project and Ethiopia’s microdams have put the two countries on a collision course, as they seek to establish facts on the ground.
The challenge facing the Nile riparian countries is to find a balance between the upstream countries’ support for the principle of “equitable use,” and Egypt’s and Sudan’s support for the principle of “no appreciable harm.” Of all the riparian states Egypt has the most to gain from the establishment of a basin-wide framework for water resources development. It can ill-afford a future in which upstream riparian’s take unilateral actions with respect to water development projects. If Egypt would reduce its existing water use by 5–10 billion m3 and scale back or abandon the plans for white Elephants like the Corridor of Development Project, there would be enough water available to strike a deal that would bring Ethiopia into the framework of a comprehensive Nile Waters Agreement.
In 1999, the Nile Basin initiative was launched by 9 African countries (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as Eritrea as an observer) in order to develop the Nile in a cooperative manner and to promote regional peace and security. Last year, five of the upstream countries, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, signed an agreement to seek more water from the Nile. They do not want to get Egypt's permission, as required by the 1929 treaty, to develop irrigation projects using the Nile's waters. The agreement is strongly opposed by both Egypt and Sudan.
The New Corridor of Development project requires substantial quantities of water. It is not yet clear whether or not the project will be successful in increasing Egypt's arable land and its agricultural output. However, it will require an increasing share of the Nile's waters at a time when the upstream countries of East Africa also need water for irrigation and food security. It has been suggested that water is the oil of the 21st century. The Nile's waters made the great civilizations of Nubia and Egypt possible. Without a fair distribution of the Nile's waters and its efficient management, the people of northeast Africa will face increasing food insecurity and threat of famine.
· Is it sustainable?
· Is it the only option?
· Is it environmentally safe?
· Is it reversible?
· Could the cost exceed the benefits?
· What are the political implications and problems?
· What are the water issues?
· Is it Energy Dependent?
· What are the Ecological and Cultural Issues
· Do we have enough verified and sufficient data to make an informed decision?
Dr. Adly Hassanein
International Expert in Sustainable Development
Middle East Development Research Specialist
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