CAIRO - With the aim of expanding land reclamation and creating a new agricultural community in Egypt, then Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri suggested in 1997 a project in the far south of the country, which would utilise surplus water held behind the High Dam leaking out into the Toshka Depression. In addition to the aim of expanding Egypt's agricultural area by more 300,000 feddans of land, the project was intended to house more than three million people when completed in 2020. Unfortunately, it seems that the Toshka Project was diverted from its main goal as a giant development project into becoming a new attraction for Arab investment in the country. Intended to help create a new Egyptian agricultural community, it was turned over to three main Arab investors and just one national company, to which some 40,000 feddans were allocated. Herein emerged the suspect deal made by the Egyptian Government and Saudi business tycoon Prince El-Walid ben Talal for 100,000 feddans [acres] of land in Toshka with insufficient conditions to guarantee its fast implementation. The January 25 revolution opened this important file and the transitional Government of acting Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has reached agreement with the Saudi prince that he would return 75,000 feddans, leaving him with the remaining 25,000 feddans, from which he has only cultivated 2,300 feddans. In an interview with former Premier el-Ganzouri following the revolution, he responded to fierce continuing criticism of the Toshka Project and claims that it was a catastrophic waste of public funds. He defended the project as conceived and put the blame on the regime of Mubarak for diverting the Toshka Project from its course and also accused successive governments for the delay in effectively implementing the project, which was supposed to increase Egypt's arable land area by 10 per cent. In an interview with Al-Akhbar newspaper, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hussein el-Atfi said that the Government is considering distributing the 75,000 feddans saved from the El-Walid contract to young Egyptians. Minister el-Atfi also stated that the Government has decided to resume work on the project to complete the requisite infrastructure and advanced drainage system to cultivate the targeted area, of which only 35,418 feddans have been cultivated. On the fringe of the project, a research centre for desert cultivation and water is proposed. With the help of the government of the United Arab Emirates, it could become a global centre for agriculture research on an area of 900 feddans, while 100 feddans would be allocated to the Water Research Centre. The leading question now is: How should the Government distribute the land of Toshka, other than for exploitation by Arab investors, so that its produce could noticeably contribute to the total agricultural production of Egypt?
