Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said Tuesday that the government plans to cultivate up to 1.5 million over two years as part of the New Delta project.
The president added that greenhouse projects carried out by the state are intended to supply the needs of the Egyptian people.
About 100,000 tonnes of vegetable produce come from existing greenhouses, the president said, adding that not all available greenhouses have been used.
“We are concerned with the good of the people if there is a chance for exports, we shall use it,” the president said.
Waste water goes through advanced triple processing in compliance with international standards for healthy use in agriculture, Sisi said.
“This process has been applied el-Mahsama Water Treatment Plant in Ismailia with capacity of 1 million cubic metres to irrigate 50,000 feddans east of the Suez Canal,” he said, noting that water is transported through siphons under the canal.
The Bahr el-Baqar Plant will be opened in June to provide 5.6 million cubic metres daily to cultivate 500,000 feddans east of the canal, the president added.
As for further widening and deepening of the Suez Canal, President Sisi said he had already discussed expanding the southern part of the waterway with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chairman.
“We can start to reform procedures now, not because of the recent emergency,” he said, adding, “Some breakdowns sometimes happen in the canal, and this is why we dug two. When there is a problem in one, a diversion can be made via the other. This was one of the goals of the New Canal which we opened in 2015,” the president explained.
Sisi said that two more ports will be opened over the next two months to further serve global trade: one in Berenice on the Red Sea, with a 1600-metre-long berthing facility, and the other at Gargoub in Matrouh governorate on the Mediterranean, also with a wharf of the same length.
“There is also Sokhna Port which will open in two years’ time and work is already under way to develop all other ports,” he said.
“The port of el-Arish will be opened in a year and a half years as will the high-speed railway linking Ain Sokhna to el-Alamein.
Data on the project are on the Egyptian presidency’s website.
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