White Elephants

The expression ‘white elephants’ is used to describe projects whose cost, and upkeep, significantly exceeds their value. History is filled with examples ranging from outlandish buildings, roads, bridges and the like. In case they don’t get built they become pipe dreams – another expression indicating that a project is nearly impossible to build due to its extravagance. But, being a dream does not mean that it is less influential or that it cannot cause significant damage.

For some reason Egypt seems to be at the forefront with respect to the prevalence of white elephants and pipe dreams. Indeed one could argue that the pyramids are the first manifestation of these massive projects – although their value as a tourist attraction came to be realised thousands of years later. Such was the foresight of the pharaohs; but lets turn our attention to more recent developments.

The Egyptian interim government has approved the construction of an infrastructure project called the ‘development corridor.’ It was proposed by the esteemed Egyptian scientist Farouk el-Baz, director of the Remote Sensing Center in Boston University, back in 1985, but received the go-ahead recently. The project involves the construction of a ‘superhighway’ and railway network connecting the northern coast up until the countries’ southern border with Sudan, running parallel to the Nile. Connectors, from East to West would link the towns along the Nile to this newly constructed highway. It is envisioned that this would lead to massive development – agricultural, industrial and the like.

This 2000-km strip is estimated to cost about $24 billion and is seen as crucial given that Egypt’s citizens occupy only 5 per cent of its land. Thus according to el-Baz it is “imperative to open new vistas for expansion outside the inhabited strip.”

On the face of it, this seems like a valuable and admirable effort. Given the scientific credentials of the people behind this idea – who would dare criticise a US based expert? – the project has all the hallmarks of a brilliant idea whose time has come. Egypt will finally conquer the desert, cultivate land, its citizens will move to newly built towns and centers, and happiness will spread in the land.

It happens however that a group of dedicated Egyptian based scientists have criticised this project on numerous grounds. For one thing constructing such a corridor in the western desert represents according to a report in the “Al Masry Al Youm” major technical problems. It is located on a plateau rising 500 metres above sea level, as argued by Egyptian geologist, Samer al-Mofty. This makes the idea of moving water from the Nile valley to this plateau nearly impossible to achieve, without expensive pumping stations. And, this in a context were there is already a lack of water in the Nile valley. Moreover, the soil in this area is not suitable for irrigation and lacks a proper sewage system.

It is not al-Mofty alone who is criticising this project but it seems the entire Egyptian scientific community who held a two-day conference in June at the Geological Survey premises in Cairo. There have been calls for scaling the project down – perhaps focusing on the corridor that links north of Cairo to Fayoum, as well as another area between Fayoum and Bani Soueif but all of this is a far cry from the massive ‘development corridor.’

The project does in fact recall the infamous Toshka development, proposed and built during the Mubarak era. It consists of a system of canals, which were supposed to carry water from Lake Nasser to the western desert with the purpose of irrigation. The aim was to increase the countries’ arable land from 6 per cent to 35 per cent. Yet, according to Egyptian scientists, the project proved to be an utter failure because it had no soil and no proper sewage system. A 300 billion Egyptian Pound white elephant.

Obviously such monies should be spent on already existing developments and roads, which are crumbling, and in utter need of repair. These ambitions raise two important points however.

First, is the need for a dialogue to asses their viability. In the absence of any kind of debate, critical voices and opinions maybe drowned out and disregarded. Such top-down approaches need to be reconsidered. Second, it shows an endemic problem within the Arab region whereby foreign-based expert’s viewpoints, projects and ideas are accepted at face value without any kind of questioning. Thus, the mere fact that a scientist has the backing of a western institute suffices for an informed opinion. Yet sometimes the voices of those living in the region are more valuable since they are familiar with the intricacies involved.

In many instances such projects should remain within the realm of fantasy. They may aid in stretching the imagination and contemplating what could have been. Immediate problems need to be solved first however, rather than engaging in some expensive ‘pipe dream’, which can turn into an irreversible ‘white elephant.’

And we all know what than can lead to.

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