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July 1998 Making the Desert Bloom: Land Reclamation in Egypt By Joseph C. Kennedy, Ph.D.

Most people know the Nile is one of the mighty rivers of the world. Many also know that the White Nile, which begins in Uganda at Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile, whose source comes in part from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, join together in Khartoum in the Sudan. Most also know that the Pyramids and the Sphinx rise above the Nile in Egypt. Few realize, however, how critical the Nile River is to the lives of the peoples of Egypt. Throughout many parts of Africa there is a saying "water is life." In Egypt the saying could be "The Nile is life." With virtually no rainfall throughout the year and little ground water to enable the drilling of deep borewells, without the Nile, Egypt would be a vast desert.

Nowhere is the Nile more crucial than where Egyptians live and farm. Ninety-five percent of the people live in the fertile Nile Valley and Delta--an area approximately 150 miles wide and 90 miles long between Cairo and Alexandria on the Mediterranean Coast. This area makes up only five percent of the total land mass of Egypt. It is in this same area, however, where through a series of irrigation canals, small dams and basins, 97 percent of all agricultural production takes place. To increase agricultural productivity on existing lands, and to increase the land available for cultivation while expanding living space for the people, has long been an effort of the Government of Egypt.

The Dam at Aswan
One such effort was the building of the dam at Aswan in Upper Egypt not far from the Sudanese border. Starting in the 1960s this was a gigantic effort to control the waters of the Nile. The yearly flood which had created the fertile Nile Valley and Delta also washed out individual farms and often entire villages. By controlling the river, two and even three crops per year would be possible. Further, new towns could be created to ease the problems of expanding urbanization. Additionally, electricity could be brought to homes and villages all along the Nile.

Some of the human consequences of the Aswan Dam are well known. The homes of 50,000 to 100,000 Nubians were inundated. The displaced people were resettled in and around Kom Ombo and many of their traditional ways of life were changed. There were also environmental consequences. Without the natural drainage provided by the annual flooding of the Nile, water logging and salinity have become a problem. Also, in the great lake created--Lake Nasser--the growth of unexpected vegetation has resulted in the growth of snails which potentially causes bilharzia (a disease which effects the bladder and the liver).

Reclaiming Desert Lands
Another intervention to increase agricultural production has been land reclamation--expanding the land available for growing crops. While land reclamation efforts date back to the early 1900s and thousands of acres of land have been put into productivity, with a population of 56 million and a population growth rate which will double that number in 25 years, expanding available farm land has become imperative in Egypt. Cairo, already one of the world's largest cities with a population of more than 15 million, simply cannot absorb more people. There are too many vehicles polluting the air. There are limited jobs for the thousands of high school and college graduates each year, limited space, and limited housing (a newly married couple might have to live with their in-laws up to eight years while waiting for a vacant apartment.)

For the past year, with funding from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), the American organization Africare has been working with the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture in a land reclamation program in Wadi El Saayda. Wadi El Saayda is about 300 miles south of Cairo in Aswan Governate, Upper Egypt and is situated between the two world-renowned cities of Luxor and Aswan. This is also the area where the 50-100,000 Nubians who were uprooted by the building of the Aswan High Dam live. Many of them will be the beneficiaries of this program

The government has already spent more than $40 million in the area to build a canal which extends four miles from the Nile out into the desert. With five pumping and lifting stations, the water of the canal has been elevated 170 feet above the Nile to the desert lands of the Wadi El Saayda. Here, in the next five years, 30,000 acres of desert land will be irrigated for agricultural production, and four new settlements created.

Greening the Land
During this past year, at Shahamma, the first settlement to get underway, 700 single male and female high school and college graduates, along with landless farmers, have been settled. Another 300 will be arriving soon. One thousand small brick homes--each with running water, electricity and a courtyard suitable for raising goats, chickens and rabbits--have been built. Additionally, there is a mosque, bakery, post office and staff housing. A health center, community center and football field will be added. Each settler at Shahamma has received six acres of land and a total of 6,000 acres will come under production. The challenge is to help these settlers become productive farmers. Sprinkle and drip irrigation have been introduced and demonstration plots and nurseries started. Over the next few months many interventions will take place, including selection of summer and winter crops, water and land management, soil enhancement, improved seeds and fertilizers, farm implements, and a credit system, and many others.

Recently I visited Wadi El Saayda. Flying from Cairo to Aswan, following the dark ribbon of the Nile, with green vegetation extending several miles on each bank of the river, then sudden desert, the centrality of the Nile was profound.

Gazing out from the office of the Egyptian director of the project, at the desert stretching as far as the eye could see, I envisioned the wheat, barley, beans, peas, watermelons, fruit trees, small animals roaming, and tourists from all over the world in the luxury hotels in Luxor and Aswan eating the vegetables grown on that land in Wadi El Saayda. I could envision a thriving new community.

The male and female settlers at Shahamma at Wadi El Saayda have arrived. They have bought their six acres of land and their homes on a 30-year mortgage. Success here will point the way to similarly reclaiming thousands upon thousands of acres of desert land and truly making the desert blossom.

Joseph C. Kennedy has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University. Currently, he is Senior Vice President and Director of International Development at Africare, a Washington, DC based non-profit organization engaged in development in rural Africa.

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