Farouk El-Baz

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1979

Abstract

Egypt is a vast country covering over 1,000,000 square kilomcters. However, its population, of ncarly 90 million people, remains confined along the banks of the Nile River and on its Delia. Its cities and villages are severely overcrowded, and its education and health systems cannot cope with the dense population. A result of that gcographic confinement is that fertile land is being lost (o urban growth at the rate of 30,000 acres a year. At that rate all of Egypt's fertile land of 5.5 million facers would disappear in 183 ycars. This paper describes a proposul of a Development Corridor. The latter would amcliorate the dire need for opening of new land for living. not only for the present 90 million peoplc. but also for the expected addition of 60 million by the year 2050, It is designed to solve the looming population increase crises. The proposal includes a maior north-south axis starting at a new port near El Alamein along the Mediterranean coastline. This axis would run parallel to the Nile Delta until the latitude of Cairo then southward parallel to the Nile Valley to the border of Sudan, a total of 12,000 kilometers. It would include: a highway of eight lanes, built to international standards, for car and bus transport: a railroad track for transportation of people as well as products: a water pipcline (about one meter in diameter) from Lake Nasser to satisfy human consumption and serviccs along the length of the highwvay: and an clectricity line lobe connected to the main grid for future preduction of solar and wind energy at the proper sites along the Corridor, The opened area cast of the north-south access would host 15 or more cast-west branches to connect it to densely populated cities along its path. A new strip of flat land would be open for development in the plain between the Nile and the plateau that confines the river's path. That zone along the north-south axis and the inhabited land is 10.5 million acres, This is nearly double the presently used land area. "This expanse of land would be utilized in new arban communities, education cities, hospitals, agriculture, agro-industries, factories, sports arenas, tourist sites, etc, Such a majer project would probably require a decade to complete, Perhaps the first five years would be devoted to the cast-west branehes to immediately case population pressures. Another five years would be devoted to establishing the main north-south transportation and cnergy axis. However, form the start, young people would cither secure jobs in the building phase, or plan far economic development actinv ities along the east-west branches, with hope for a better future. It is also postulated for the future that the Corridor would be extended southward throughout Sudan. Furthermore one could envision its future extension to link all of east Africa all the way to Cape Town in South Africa.

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