Most of Egypt’s population lives in a narrow strip in the Valley and Delta sector; an area that does not exceed 6 % of Egyptian territories. There rose the need for establishing giant projects aiming to a redistribution of the population, moving out of the narrow valley and, making use of Egypt’s desert lands via creating new urban communities that are equipped with all the life necessities.
Toshka area lies in the western desert 225 km south of Aswan. Toshka is Nubian word means “the homeland of Al-Ghabeera Plant”; which is a famous aromatic plant in the area. Toshka is marked by its pristine lands that have never been exposed to use of pesticides or chemicals, which ensures production of safe crops conforming to world environmental standards/specifications.
Toshka is also characterized by its warm dry climate that contributes to fast ripeness of the cultivated crops, compared with other countries, and facilitates the promotion of these crops in the international markets.
The New Valley Project or Toshka Project consists of building a system of canals t o carry water from Lake Nasser to irrigate part of the sandy wastes of the Western Desert of Egypt, which is part of the Sahara Desert.
In 1997, the Egyptian government decided to develop a new valley (as opposed to the existing Nile Valley) where agricultural and industrial communities would develop. It has been an ambitious project which was meant to help Egypt cope with its rapidly growing population.
The canal inlet starts from a site 8 km to the north of Toshka Bay on Lake Nasser. The canal is meant to continue westwards until it reaches the Darb el-Arbe'ien route, then northwards along the Darb el- Arbe'ien to the Baris Oasis, covering a distance of 310 km.
The centerpiece of the project is the Mubarak Pumping Station in Toshka and was inaugurated in March 2005. It is a unique model of colossal stations that apply state-of-the-art technologies. It pumps water from Lake Nasser to be transported by way of a canal through the valley, with the idea of transforming 2340 Square kilometre (588,000 acres) of desert into agricultural land. The amount of water outflowing from the station’s units is controlled according to actual irrigation requirements. Half of the land will be given to college graduates, 1 acre each, funded by the Long Live Egypt Fund.
The Objectives are: - Addition of a new area of arable land amounting to 540 thousand feddans that may be extended in the future to one million feddans irrigated by surface water drawn from the Nile as well as the available ground water resources in the area;
- Establishing integrated agricultural and industrial communities that are based on exploitation of agricultural raw materials and are further extended to include industries dependent on local materials, mining and generation of power;
- Setting up new urban communities to decrease the high population density in the Valley and Delta areas;
- Generating employment for all levels of workforce in fields of agriculture, industry, trade and exploration of mineral deposits and raw materials;
- Creating a road network serving developmental objectives and plans in the area;
- Promoting different tourist activities; safari, therapeutic touring and rallies in the area.
Toshka farm area is about 60,000 feddans, the largest farm in Egypt. It is mainly irrigated from Toshka canal through a pumping station with 7 pumps to supply about 7,000 cubic meters of water per hour. As for the date farm in Toshka, 40,000 acres were allocated for the cultivation of high-quality date with a total of 2.5 million palm trees with the aim of placing Egypt on the world map for the production and export of dates. This aims to put Egypt on the international map of date production and export.
20 thousand acres of Toshka farm were allocated for the cultivation of strategic crops, such as corn and wheat, in addition to 200 acres allocated for the grape farm, out of the total area of 300 thousand acres that were cultivated by the National Company for the Reclamation and Cultivation of land at the level of the Republic. Moreover, the investment value of the farm is to be maximized through breeding and producing thousands of sheep livestock.
It is a landscaping and irrigation cultivation and lift station is for a building that has the main sewer line coming in higher then the lowest fixtures.
