Mubarak inaugurates giant pumping station
Egypt, Economics, 3/3/2005

On his trip to the ambitious mega-project of Toshka, in the south of the valley, President Hosni Mubarak gave the signal to inaugurate the operation of the giant Mubarak Water Pump Station's 24 units, one of the largest concrete construction sites in the world, to work with its maximum pumping capacity.

The station, which cost LE 1.5 billion to build, will service over half a million feddans of desert land in the area.

A briefing by Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mahmoud Abu Zeid served to update President Mubarak and a large entourage of officials and investors on the project's latest facts and figures.

"Toshka project is part of the state's plan to expand in an area of 3.4 million feddans by 2017," Abu Zeid said.

He noted that the plan depends on currently available water resources in line with the state's water policy.

"We will use every drop of water, preserve the water from pollution, and work with the Nile Basin countries to get extra water," the minister explained.

About 1.3 million feddans were provided with water as of 2004.

Currently, 1.3 million feddans are on their way to be irrigated.

The project relies on both water from Lake Nasser, as well as subterranean water being accessed via some 114 wells dug so far.

President Mubarak then watched a documentary on the overall project, which he approved for implementation on January 9, 1997.

He later moved to Mubarak Water Pump Station, where he listened to a presentation on the achievements to date and the crops being Cultivated, President Mubarak examined produce from an experimental patch of land affiliated to the Agricultural Research Centre.

The President then proceeded to another site, where he inspected the premises of the Holding Company for Commerce; one of the companies owned by the Ministry of Investment and designed to cultivate 7,000 feddans in the first stage.

He went, next to the premises of the Kingdom Agricultural Development Company,this is owned by Saudi investor Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal.

The President expressed his admiration of the project, which has already established a high export volume and created many jobs.

Bin Talal, one of the project's biggest investors is in charge of developing 100,000 feddans.

Toshka and other development projects aim to populate an ambitious 25 percent of the country instead of the five percent of the land which the entire population now lives.

The mega- project is expected to create 60,000 job opportunities.

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