El-Alamin—It is estimated that on the northwest coast between Alexandria and el-Salloum that there are three million cultivable feddans, 650 million square meters of mining wealth, 4.8 billion barrels of oil, and 13.4 trillion feet of natural gas. But those resources go untapped because of the estimated 16.7 million landmines buried in the area since 1942. Fathy el-Shazly, director of the Executive Secretariat for Demining and Development of the Northwest Coast, said in a news conference yesterday in el-Alamin, commemorating the anniversary of the 1942 battle that took place there, that the explosives buried in Egypt represent 21 per cent of those in the world, which are estimated at 102 million in 65 countries. El-Shazly added that 75 per cent of the leftovers buried in the northwestern coast are non-explosive, such as aircraft bombs that weigh 2000 tons, artillery missiles and mortars, as well as small bullets. However, he said, 2.5 per cent are anti-personnel land mines, and 22.5 per cent are anti-tank and anti-vehicle mines. These explosives in Egypt's northwest are leftovers from the Battle of el-Alamin, a major battle in the Desert Campaign of World War II. During the battle, the British army forced the Germans into a retreat, breaking the German march across North Africa and restoring morale to British forces. The Executive Secretariat has cleared 31,250 feddans of landmines in the first stage of the demining project, which is being carried out in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, said el-Shazly. The project is expected to conclude in early January with a celebration that will be attended by the Prime Minister. Of the 31,250 feddans cleared so far, 3050 will be given to the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities to build the New Alamin City. Another 28,200 thousand will go to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and will be irrigated by el-Hammam Canal. Matrouh Governorate has allocated a piece of land in Alamin for the erection of a memorial for Egyptian civilians killed by the mines. The memorial, which will stand in front of an Italian memorial, requires LE1 million in financing. The Executive Secretariat has laid out a design for the memorial which cost LE60,000, el-Shazly said. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
