Environmental Discussion

Over break I went to Cairo, Egypt. While on a tour, I had a chance to speak with our tour guide about the subject of agriculture and water in Egypt. Since a lot of the traditional agricultural land is being converted into residential land, the Egyptian government is working on an initiative to "reclaim" the desert and grow crops on land that was never meant to grow food. This struck me as odd since it would require a vast amount of water to accomplish such a project, not to mention energy in pumping the water and building the infrastructure to do such. A much more logical plan, in my opinion, would be to keep traditional growing land for growing and put houses in the desert. I saw no good in trying to convert a desert to a farm.

My guide, being Egyptian, had a different opinion. He viewed this "reclaimation" of desert as a step forward for Egypt to become economically strong and not as dependent on other countries for food supply. He seemed to think there was nothing environmentally wrong with reclaiming desert and exhausting the Nile River to do so. In his opinion, the Nile was endless and even if it ran dry, he assured me the high dam held enough water to keep Egypt going for 14 years.

We were able to converse with each other respectively; however, I found the whole conversation very frustrating. I don't understand how one can believe farming a desert sounds like a good or natural idea. Building housing in the desert and saving the fertile land for growing seems like a much better and pratical plan. At the end of the conversation, neither one of us had changed our views though I did learn a bit about urban, rural, and desert development.