Egypt launches desert mega-project to grow wheat using an “artificial river”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has officially inaugurated the massive New Delta agricultural project aimed at growing wheat and other crops on reclaimed desert land. The ceremony took place during the 2026 wheat harvest on newly cultivated fields west of the Nile Delta.

According to the government, New Delta is the largest land reclamation project in the country’s history. The scheme is expected to eventually cover 2.2 million feddans, or about 9,000 square kilometers. Egypt plans to expand its cultivated land area by around 15%, focusing on wheat, corn, vegetables, as well as export-oriented crops such as olives and figs.

Total investment in the project has already reached 800 billion Egyptian pounds (more than $15 billion). The funds have been used to prepare farmland and build grain silos, industrial zones, and new roads connecting the desert areas with the Nile Valley and Egyptian ports. Authorities also expect the project to create more than two million jobs.

A key feature of the New Delta project is its large-scale irrigation system, already being described in Egypt as an “artificial river.” Agricultural drainage water from the western Nile Delta is sent to the El Hammam treatment complex on the Mediterranean coast, where up to 7.5 million cubic meters of water are treated daily. The water is then pumped through a 170-kilometer canal and 13 pumping stations into desert farming areas.

The Egyptian government sees the project as a strategic response to food security threats intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. However, environmental experts and rights groups have raised concerns over the system’s high energy consumption, massive public spending, and the concentration of control in military-linked institutions overseeing the project.

Tags: Egypt, wheat