Egypt’s Agriculture minister Salah Abdul Momen told the Al-Ahram that his ministry has developed a detailed five-year plan to turn 1 million acres of arid desert in central Sinai into farmland, at a rate of 200,000 acres per year. Another Egyptian official, irrigation minister Muhammad Bahaa A-Din, told the daily that a new underground water reservoir was discovered in the northern part of the Sinai’s western desert, which will supply 320 million cubic meters (84.5 billion gallons) of water yearly, enough to irrigate 70,000 acres during the project’s initial stage. The plan includes settling some 1 million Egyptians in the new agricultural regions.
The minister told Al-Ahram that in the coming weeks the government will sign contracts with 150 local and foreign investors who will cover the entire cost of development, estimated at 12 billion Egyptian pounds ($2 billion). READMORE