Sharq El Owainat, or East Oweinat is a 110,000 acre desert land reclamation project that started in 1991, in the

New Valley Governorate New Valley Governorate or El Wadi El Gedid Governorate ( ar, محافظة الوادي الجديد , ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is in the southwestern part of the country, in the south of Egypt Western Desert (part of the Saha ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. It is in a remote location in the Western Desert in the extreme south-west of the country, east of Oweinat Mountain, delimiting Egypt's south western border with

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

and Sudan. The project is operated by the Egyptian Military's National Company for Reclamation and Agriculture in East Oweinat, and in 2021 a further 1.4 million acres were added to its concession.

Water management

The Sharq El Owainat project depends on “

fossil water Fossil water or paleowater is an ancient body of water that has been contained in some undisturbed space, typically groundwater in an aquifer, for millennia. Other types of fossil water can include subglacial lakes, such as Antarctica's Lake Vos ...

” from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, which recharges slowly and is considered a non-renewable resource. The water is pumped from underground and delivered to sprinklers that rotate around a central pivot point, creating green crop circles.

Operators

The initial phase of the project resulted in 27,000

feddans A feddan ( ar, فدّان, faddān) is a unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and the Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the fe ...

of barren desert land was converted to fertile land. There are about 400 water

wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

in the area with a further 250 under construction. There is also a nursery that includes 26

greenhouses A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.These s ...

. The National Company for Reclamation and Agriculture in East Oweinat has undertaken a large part of the land cultivation, in addition to selling vast plots to other government agencies. The Awkaf Agency owns 48,000 acres of which it has cultivated 20,000. In addition to Egyptian government companies, a number of private and foreign companies operate in Oweinat. For example, the United Arab Emirates' Jenaan owns 50,000 acres and Al Dahra 23,500 acres. Jenaan's agreement also included signing an agreement with the national

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

of Egypt, EgyptAir Express (''subsidiary of EgyptAir''), to operate a weekly flight from Cairo International Airport to Sharq El Owainat Airport in order to serve the movement of workers and investors to encourage agricultural investment in the region. The flights began 1 November 2009 for an initial 1-year period. Their cultivation works are seen by some researchers as part of a UAE policy towards consolidating a pivotal role as a food re-export hub, intensifying the industrialisation and commodification of agriculture in the region.

References

{{coord, 22.5829, 28.7073, scale:500000_region:EG, display=title New Valley Governorate Geography of Egypt Agriculture in Egypt Interbasin transfer

Water management

Operators

See also

References