January 14, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 10, 1423

CAIRO: When an Egyptian tobacco company decided to name a new brand Toshka, cries went up in the pro-government press for the company to pull the cigarettes from the market and stop production.

The calls were strongest in the semi-official al-Gomhuriya daily, whose editor-in-chief, Samir Ragab, later claimed credit for instigating a government ban on the brand.

The company’s crime was to give the brand the same name as the country’s multi-billion scheme to transform Egypt’s vast western desert into useful land for her rapidly increasing population.

In the opinion of the press, naming a product associated with cancer and death after a life-saving government scheme such as the Toshka mega-project, was simply unacceptable.

The brand was renamed.

Six years since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gave the all- clear signal for the Toshka mega-project to get underway, the government says it’s beginning to become a reality.

The project aims to transform the country’s western desert into land suitable for agricultural, industrial and commercial activities, and human habitation.

Its initial phase will see water pumped from Lake Nasser via the Sheikh Zaid Canal to irrigate tens of thousands of feddans (a feddan is just over 1,000 acres) of reclaimed desert in the Toshka area.

The 50 kilometre-long canal was named after United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahyan. He and Saudi tycoon Prince Walid bin Talal are the project’s main sponsors.

Once completed, the government expects the project to increase the country’s arable land from its current five per cent of Egypt’s total area to about 25 per cent.

This should eventually lead to the creation of a “southern valley” or “new delta”, which will help ease pressure in the narrow and crowded Nile valley, say the project’s proponents.

They argue that a new valley in the south will attract much-needed investment, create new jobs, increase agricultural output and boost exports.

Mubarak gave the go-ahead Sunday for the Mubarak water pumping station to begin irrigating up to 10,000 feddans of land in Toshka the area, a figure expected to reach 60,000 by the end of the year.

The launch of the 222 million dollar (210 million euros) station coincided with the operation of two of its 21 units for carrying water pumped from Lake Nasser across the Sheikh Zaid Canal.

Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mahmoud Abu Zeid was on hand to explain to Mubarak Sunday everything about the pump bearing the president’s name.

“The pump is designed to operate at its full capacity under any condition,” said Abu Zeid. He added that it was also designed to withstand major earthquakes.

Proponents are touting the project as an important, if not the most important, achievement of Mubarak’s 22-year rule.

Every Egyptian president since Gamal Abdel Nasser has left a legacy. Nasser left the Aswan High Dam, and Anwar al-Sadat gave Egypt the “October War victory over Israel”.

But, as Abu Zeid put it, Mubarak is “the first Egyptian leader to insist, call and plan for an exodus from the narrow valley.”

Egypt has an estimated population of 69 million expected to double in the next 30 years. Nearly the entire population lives on roughly four per cent of the total area, mostly along the Nile Valley.

It is hoped that the completion of the Toshka project will change that and open opportunities in the southern valley, where water will be brought to them and not the other way round.—dpa