The people's revolution in Egypt has been dominated the news since January. One of the factors that led to the revolt against the Mubarak government was sharply rising food prices. Egyptian civilization has always been based on the gift of the Nile, and today most of Egypt's 80 million people are crowded into the Nile Valley and the delta. Most of the rest of the country is desert. The country, as a whole, receives an average of two inches of rainfall per year.
Fifty years ago, Egypt was self sufficient in most commodities with the exception of wheat. In 1960 Egypt produced about 70% of the wheat it consumed. Today, as a result of a growing population and better nutrition, Egypt imports 40% of its food and 60% of its wheat. It is the largest wheat importer in the world. Although wheat prices are subsidized by the Egyptian government, the situation was exacerbated by the problems with the Russian wheat crop last summer as a result of the widespread fires. Clearly Egypt needs to produce more food to feed its growing population, and the situation has become more dire since Egypt's oil exports peaked in the 1990s. In 1997, the New Valley project was begun as a possible solution to Egypt's food crisis.
The New Valley or Toshka Project was designed to provide more farmland for Egypt's growing population. The idea was to create a second agricultural valley by creating a massive pumping station and a series of canals that would eventually connect Lake Nasser (formed by the damming of the Nile at Aswan) with the western oases, including Kharga and Dakleh. If the project is successful, the New Valley may be home to 3 million people by 2020 and increase Egypt's arable land by 10%.
Parts of the New Valley project have already been completed. The Mubarak pumping station, shown here under construction, was completed in 2005:
~photo source
Here is an aerial photograph showing some of the lands in the New Valley under irrigation:
However, the New Valley project raises some critical issues for EcoJustice. 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 (link).
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 construction of Egypt's New Valley 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 riparians 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 the New Valley Project, there would be enough water available to strike a deal that would bring Ethiopia into the framework of a comprehensive Nile Waters Agreement.~source
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 Valley 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, the people of northeast Africa will face increasing food insecurity and threat of famine.