Detecting and Controlling the Waterlogging in Dakhla Basin
247
Fig. 4 Geomorphologic map of Dakhla (Compiled from: Landsat-TM Images; Topographic Maps,
Scale 250,000; Field Observation) (Brookes 1993)
The New Valley plan dates back to 1959, where orders were carried out by former
president Gamal Abdel Nasser. His vision was to establish a Western Desert valley,
and this valley was intended to be similar to the Nile Valley. Building techniques were
implemented, but the project was never completed. The New Valley Project began
in the 1960s with five oases: Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga (Fig. 5).
President Hosni Mubarak, who served from 1981 to 2011 as Egypt’s president,
made an ambitious plan in 1997 to create a new parallel to the Nile Valley delta. In
the 1990s, astronauts in orbit found many large lakes in the west of the Nile Valley
(Brandt 2013). Since the government was only able to release a certain amount of
water into the Nile via the Aswan High Dam, transportation of water from Lake
Nasser was, therefore, important in order to mitigate the threat of flooding the lake.
This water was released into Tushka’s depression, where it first evaporated (Brandt
2013). The developers are hoping to restore the underlying aquifers and create a new,
more sustainable area when they built the new Tushka desert lakes. President Hosni
Mubarak used the water in 1997 to achieve his goals. The plan will be to build this
new delta for the next 20 years, with completion in 2017. The New Valley is expected
to increase Egypt’s agricultural land by 10% and provide up to 16 million people with
a new living space by 2020, according to the former Egyptian government (Brandt
2013). A new channel has opened, called the Sheik Zayed Canal. This was to pump
water from Lake Nasser through the Sheik Zayed Canal, thereby irrigating the desert
land of the region. In 2000, 500,000 feddans (1 feddan = 1.03784 acre, 1 feddan =
4200 sq.m, and 1 acre = 4046.86 sq.m)) of land were projected to grow in parallel
with the Nile Valley (Brandt 2013).
247
Fig. 4 Geomorphologic map of Dakhla (Compiled from: Landsat-TM Images; Topographic Maps,
Scale 250,000; Field Observation) (Brookes 1993)
The New Valley plan dates back to 1959, where orders were carried out by former
president Gamal Abdel Nasser. His vision was to establish a Western Desert valley,
and this valley was intended to be similar to the Nile Valley. Building techniques were
implemented, but the project was never completed. The New Valley Project began
in the 1960s with five oases: Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga (Fig. 5).
President Hosni Mubarak, who served from 1981 to 2011 as Egypt’s president,
made an ambitious plan in 1997 to create a new parallel to the Nile Valley delta. In
the 1990s, astronauts in orbit found many large lakes in the west of the Nile Valley
(Brandt 2013). Since the government was only able to release a certain amount of
water into the Nile via the Aswan High Dam, transportation of water from Lake
Nasser was, therefore, important in order to mitigate the threat of flooding the lake.
This water was released into Tushka’s depression, where it first evaporated (Brandt
2013). The developers are hoping to restore the underlying aquifers and create a new,
more sustainable area when they built the new Tushka desert lakes. President Hosni
Mubarak used the water in 1997 to achieve his goals. The plan will be to build this
new delta for the next 20 years, with completion in 2017. The New Valley is expected
to increase Egypt’s agricultural land by 10% and provide up to 16 million people with
a new living space by 2020, according to the former Egyptian government (Brandt
2013). A new channel has opened, called the Sheik Zayed Canal. This was to pump
water from Lake Nasser through the Sheik Zayed Canal, thereby irrigating the desert
land of the region. In 2000, 500,000 feddans (1 feddan = 1.03784 acre, 1 feddan =
4200 sq.m, and 1 acre = 4046.86 sq.m)) of land were projected to grow in parallel
with the Nile Valley (Brandt 2013).