As economic and technological change drives forward, social and political change will follow, writes Abdel-Moneim Said Countries can change in various ways. The conditions in some may be overturned by social or political revolution. In others, whole ways of life might change as the result of technological and economic progress. Foreign invasion or overwhelming military defeat may propel still others into a definitive break with the past, as occurred with Germany and Japan. In most countries, however, major transformations do not come suddenly or as the consequence of violent upheaval, but rather are the product of the accumulation over time of the effects of diverse economic, social and political factors. Egypt belongs to this latter category of nations. According to many historians, the birth of modern Egypt in the Mohamed Ali era had its origins in developments under the Mamelukes long before the Napoleonic invasion. Be that as it may, subsequent changes under Mohamed Ali and his successors certainly had a cumulative effect on society. The government-sponsored study missions abroad in the early 19th century, the changes in the systems of land ownership under the Khedive Said, the introduction of cotton into Egypt in the same period, and the influx of modern means of transportation and communications, from trains to automobiles, from the telegraph to the radio and television, and from the press to the Internet, have all had profound impacts on the Egyptian way of life. All that change did not occur without triggering various forms of anxiety that sometimes burst to the surface during confrontations against the colonial occupation or in different types of "revolution". But after such outbreaks, social leaders reverted to the gradual accumulation of one incremental change after the other. At no time in our "liberal" or "socialist" eras did we experience an anti-illiteracy drive on the scale of the campaign that Japan introduced over a century ago three decades after it began its national revival. Nor have we experienced a qualitative shift in our demographic distribution such as that which occurred in the US during its expansion westward or in most Western countries when their economies shifted from agrarian to predominantly industrial ones. Nothing quite so dramatic happened in Egypt. Egyptians changed gradually, and so did their country. Even the foreign occupation of the Suez Canal did not impede the construction and development of three modern cities -- Suez, Ismailia and Port Said -- that are now the loci of one of the highest-ranking Egyptian governorates in the human development index. The construction of the High Dam altered the course of the Nile and, for the first time in history, the contours of Upper Egypt and its patterns of agriculture. In addition, the dam gave rise to the modern city of Aswan, which had once been a place of exile, while the rest of Egypt made the adjustments to greater quantities of electricity, larger tracts of cultivable land and greater diversification in crops. We see a similar development unfolding now as the consequence of the mega-development projects that are changing the geographic and demographic face of the country. Whereas the Nile since time immemorial has flowed northward from the heart of Africa to Damietta and Rashid on the Mediterranean coast, feeding a far-flung civilisation with its life-giving waters, today there is a major current of energy flowing in the opposite direction, pumping life into industry, giving new form and substance to agriculture, and spreading light, essential services and irreversible change to the remotest villages and hamlets. This new energy supply has been made possible by the Ministry of Petroleum that has implemented a long-range and far-reaching plan of laying a grid of natural gas pipelines that will eventually cover residential neighbourhoods, industrial units, some electricity generating plants and various tourist resorts throughout a large part of the country. The South Valley Natural Gas Pipeline will be the longest stretch of the natural gas network in Egypt. Recently the hardest phase has been completed, allowing for a 1,750 metre long stretch of pipeline to be laid on the bed of the Nile at a depth of 20 metres below the surface. This project was first proposed in the 1980s with the aim of piping natural gas to the Kima (Egyptian Chemical Industries) industrial complex in Aswan. After several feasibility studies it was concluded that the project was too difficult, whether the pipe was to stretch down the Nile Valley basin or via the Red Sea coast. However, eventually it was decided that the major obstacles could be overcome and 10 years ago the project went into construction. It proceeded stage after stage, from Dahshour to Al-Koreimat, from Beni Sweif to Abu Qurqas, and then from there to Assiut, Girga, Sohag and, lastly, Aswan. The pipeline will supply clean and safe energy to homes and industries all along the way from Dahshour to Aswan. It was from that latter destination that the High Dam project radiated change northward into Upper Egypt and beyond. Soon we will see to what extent and magnitude the Southern Valley pipeline compares. The project encountered numerous geographical obstacles in the course of construction. There were extensive patches of rocks and boulders of which some 550,000 cubic metres had to be removed and there were some 350,000 square kilometres of soft agricultural soil. A total of five million cubic metres of earth were moved in the course of all the digging, backfilling and paving operations for the pipeline, and around 800 various crossings were constructed over roads, railways and irrigation canals. Costing a total of LE5.7 billion, the funding was supplied by the European Investment Bank, the Arab Development Fund and some Egyptian banks. The 930-kilometre long pipeline was completed in a record period of time by employees and labour working for Egyptian petroleum companies. No foreign expertise was brought in, even for the trickier stretch from Minya to Aswan. The highest priority of the project is to develop the Upper Egyptian governorates. Natural gas has already reached the governorates of Beni Sweif, Minya, Assiut and Sohag, and it should be flowing into Qena, Luxor and Aswan by the end of this year. The south will thus be receiving its fair share of natural gas. Initially, the pipeline will be transporting 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas and this will increase to 14.4 billion cubic metres within seven years. This is one of the most important strategic projects the Egyptian government has implemented in recent years. The South Valley Pipeline will be highly instrumental in the development of the south and open broad horizons for our southern governorates. As a cheap and clean source of energy, natural gas is environment friendly. It will help existing companies improve their performance, encourage various forms of trade, attract various infrastructural development projects and increasingly attract private sector engagement in a diversity of new enterprises that will create more jobs for the inhabitants of Upper Egypt. This will contribute to stemming the migration northward to Cairo and even abroad. Ultimately, the major aim is to spur the industrial and economic development of Upper Egypt, which will unleash new scope for the geographic and demographic evolution of our country. Upper Egypt is thus on the verge of a phase of sweeping socio-economic change, such as that which had taken place in Aswan and the Suez Canal cities before. Moreover, another project is under way that will help propel this process forward: the construction of highways linking Upper Egypt with the Red Sea. The port of Safaga is 712 kilometres from Sohag and 823 kilometres from Assiut. The Red Sea Highway Project will reduce the travel time between that port and these two Nile Valley cities to only 2.5 and three hours respectively. The highway, moreover, will form one of the infrastructural foundations for a range of urban and industrial development projects along the Upper Egypt-Red Sea axis. Urban development projects have been planned for Wadi Qena, five areas in the governorate of Assiut, Wadi Sheikh (located between Assiut and Sohag), East Sohag, and the area of Awlad Sharq (located between Sohag and Qena), while industrial development and mining projects are destined for West Safaga, the Matamir Industrial Zone east of the Sohag and Assiut junctures, and the Gabal Al-Geer Industrial Zone east of the Qena juncture. This enormous and multifaceted development project calls to mind my repeated appeals in numerous previous articles for the need to harness the vast latent wealth our country possesses. Unleashing this potential is the indispensable key to development and progress, and to the expansion of the middle class as a vehicle for democratic transition. Also as I have said on many occasions, there is no point in simply bewailing our weaknesses, poverty and shortcomings. Nor should we take as our starting point a utopia unattained by any other country on earth. Rather, the only way forward is to think constructively about how to unleash the power of our wealth and knowledge and to steer it in a direction that generates a solid accumulation of progress and a qualitative leap in our process of socio-economic development, which has dragged on considerably longer than it should have. Natural gas has reached the people of Upper Egypt and the people of Upper Egypt have reached the sea. And all along the expanse of mostly desert land from the banks of the Nile to the shores of the Red Sea the means are emerging for people to elevate themselves to the stature of that wellspring that has changed so much over its long and distinguished history. The wellspring I refer to, of course, is Egypt, the betterment of which is ultimately the cause that concerns us the most.
