Agriculture and population are Egypt's new tools to combat security woes in the peninsula
Egypt has decided to combat the volatile security situation in Sinai by settling 1 million citizens and developing agriculture in the sparsely populated peninsula, establishment daily Al-Ahram reported Sunday.
| They've been doing this kind of thing more or less well since the 1950s, according to a 2008 article in National Geographic, getting water either from the Nile or local underground aquifers. Judge for yourself the odds of success, dear Reader. |
Agriculture minister Salah Abdul Momen told the daily 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. The plan includes settling some 1 million Egyptians in the new agricultural regions.
| Personally, I think there's a reason the only current inhabitants of the Sinai are Beduin tribes and crazy Israelis (and American military observers -- shhh!), but that is mere suspicion and feeling, not actually knowledge. |
The 14.7 million acre (23,000 mi²) peninsula, which Egypt regained through the Camp David peace accords with Israel in 1982, is sparsely populated and economically marginalized. The mountainous center is particularly underdeveloped.
| So they can just level those mountains for the farmland they'll need... |
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).
Abdul Momen said that 3,500 acres will be distributed to recent university graduates and small farmers, who will each be given 2 greenhouses for agricultural use.
| They should perhaps not consult the Gazans on what to do with donated greenhouses... |
| Just what every university graduate wants: a pair of greenhouses... |
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.
Minister Abdul Momen told Al-Ahram that implementing the project as quickly as possible would help solve Egypt's security concerns.
The initiative comes two weeks after Sinai-based terror groups killed 16 uniformed Egyptian security personnel, who were breaking their Ramadan fast with an evening meal, in an attack on their base near the Gazoo-Israel-Egypt border. The Death Eaters then commandeered an Egyptian Army armored personnel vehicle at the base and smashed across the border into Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing. A mile or so inside Israel, they were blown up by the Israel Air Force. |