In 2006, during a visit by the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, to the industrial zone in the city of Gamssa—200 km to the north of Cairo— the former Governor of Dakahlia, Samir Salam, asked Mubarak to approve the establishment of a New Mansoura in the 60,000 acres of desert hinterland to address the limited building space of the old city of Mansour and open new investment opportunities.
High hopes, low lands
In 2006, during a visit by the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, to the industrial zone in the city of Gamssa—200 km to the north of Cairo— the former Governor of Dakahlia, Samir Salam, asked Mubarak to approve the establishment of a New Mansoura in the 60,000 acres of desert hinterland to address the limited building space of the old city of Mansour and open new investment opportunities.
High hopes, low lands
The project would be an important demographic leap for Mansoura, home to about half a million people in North Delta. The imagined site, extending parallel to the coastal area between Gamssa and the borders of Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate, however, might sink before the project sets off. According to many environmental studies, which have calculated the rates of the Delta lands’ erosion and sea flooding rates, the region is in danger of disappearing under water within two decades.
Mahmoud al-Aagez, the Ministry of Housing First Undersecretary in the Governorate explains the steps of establishing the city as follows: the first phase of the project includes the narrow strip that extends to ten thousand acres between Gamssa and Kafr el-Sheikh. It would be bordered by the sea to the north and the international coastal road to the south. Strategic drawings and soil samplings have been made by the Remote Sensing Commission. In addition, lands formerly assigned to companies by virtue of the public interest and to businessmen who turned to be non-committed have been restored, including 1,800 acres restored from a petrochemical company that transferred its business to Suez. A presidential decree to begin the implementation of the project infrastructure is being awaited.
Al-Aagez explains that an important aspect of the city would be that it provided low-cost housing for many young people, as the prices of real estate in the city have reached astronomical highs, he says. It would also solve much of the traffic congestions and pressure on services, and would be a cynosure of the investors who have started to arrive through the establishment of the Delta Academy for Higher Education.
The new city has become a popular affair, and many have set their hopes on it, including 30-year old worker, Mohammed Abdulmawla, who says, “New Mansoura is the housing and work dream of my generation of young people.
The old Mansoura has become narrow for us, and we know there is something to be said about sinking, but ‘let me live today and make me die tomorrow.’”
A sunken city
All these hopes have been a source of surprise for Muhammad Shinnawi, Chair of the Environment Society in Dakahlia. “The government of Ganzouri is a caretaker government. It is obviously still selling the illusions of the old regime even after the revolution. The whole world has agreed that that area of the Delta is exposed to high rates of erosion and fierce climate changes, leading to rising sea water and sinking new areas in North Delta. There are Egyptian scientific researches in this regard, including two researches of Mostafa Tolba and Khaled Odeh. Sinking is continuous at the edges of the North Delta at sea level, and the area to 7.7 kilometers inside the mainland of the Delta. This has already taken place over recent years in the northeast of the Delta, where the Nile flooding has been mixed with the sea, helping lowering the level of those areas” he said.
However, Atef Minbawi, an official at the Environmental Protection Body in the Governorate, stresses that the governorate has prepared all the necessary studies to overcome these obstacles. The project is not risky, as the governorate is developing plans to address water advance by dams and sea gates. This was also affirmed by Mohammed Nabih, the Governorate Secretary General, pointing out that addressing sea advance is subject to a comprehensive national plan.
Afforestation is the solution?
Between the state officials’ confidence in their plans and experts’ warnings, Ahmed Rakha, a senior researcher in environmental affairs and the manager of Land, Soil and Afforestation Department at the Central Administration of the Environmental Affairs Agency, presents a proposal to overcome the failed national plans of addressing sea advancement, as he described. He proposes to establish a tree forest on the 100-km-length waterfront of New Mansoura. The rate of drowning of 1 cm per year can be resisted by the establishment of cost-effective nurseries that produce three million seedlings irrigated with the agricultural drainage water available in the region. Then, the forest would turn into current agricultural activity and future economic activity, in addition to its environmental usefulness.
Debate about the future of the project continues to flare up. While no party provides any decisive arguments, everyone hopes for a solution to the present crisis without allowing the New Mansoura to become the real version of Atlantis.
