AN APPRAISAL OF THE SOUTHERN VALLEY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN EGYPT

The increasing population in Egypt is leading to overcrowding in the O ld Valley and delta area. The per capita reduction in arable land and water is likely to lead to serious problems. Egypt's chosen solution t o this problem is the development of Southern Egypt. This will be know n as the Southern Valley Development Project (SVDP) and will involve t he irrigation and colonising of an area to the north-west of lake Nass er over a period of 30 years. This will increase the occupied area of the country from 4% to 24%. The area will be supplied with water via a new canal known as the South Valley Canal. It is planned to reclaim 0 .21 m ha by the year 2002, and at the end of the project some 1.43 m h a will have been reclaimed. The surface water requirement of the proje ct is 5 bn m(3), this will be provided by a strict water saving policy which aims to save about 11 bn m(3). The first part of this paper des cribes the background and detail of the project with particular regard to water resources. The latter part examines the pros and cons of the project highlighting some areas of concern.