CAIRO

NARROW strip of asphalt

winds among the sands of
the Libyan Desert. This is the
Cairo - Alexandria road. The
pale, colorless sky is cloudless,
the earth bakes in the dry
Egyptian heat. There is no
dwelling to be seen, no sign
of human life. Were it not
for the ribbon of road and the
empty barrels in which asp-
halt had been brought, one
might think this region had
never known human _ foot-
steps.

In a moment of inattention
our driver lets the car run off
the asphalt, and all four wheels
sink gently into the sand. We
are unable to move it and it
takes a team of road workers
to get it back.

A road branches off to the
right. We follow it for some
miles and find ourselves be-
fore a barrier. This marks
the beginning of the province
of at-Tahreer, a name which
means “Liberation.”

Over the sentry box waves
a tricolored flag — yellow,
blue and green. The yellow
stands for the desert, the blue
for the Nile and the green for
vegetation.

This is the flag of the new
province of at-Tahreer. It
symbolizes man’s __ struggle
with the desert, the struggle
to transform wasteland into
a flowering garden.

*

Egypt is a big country, lar-
ger than all of France, Italy,

Belgium and Holland com-
bined. But most of. this is
desert.

The whole population of

about 23 million is concentra-
ted on a narrow strip a few
dozen miles wide, running
along either side of the Nile,
and in the numerous oases.
This cultivated land is only
about 4 percent of the whole
of Egypt’s territory, but it
determines the country’s char-
acter. -

There is practically no rain,
agriculture has to be entirely
irrigated. Life and water form
one indivisible concept.

The ancient Greek historian
Herodotus expressed this in
the words: “Egypt is the gift of
the Nile.” It might be said

vith equal justification that
Egypt has been created by an
able, hard-working people.

The total irrigated area is
now 5,800,000 feddans ( a fed-

~dan is a little over an acre).

Every hand’s breadth of land
in the Nile Valley is cultivated,
but it is far from sufficient.
The peasants even sow the
roadsides and the steep banks
of canals, and the landless
fellahs go to towns to seek
their bread as unskilled work-

ers.
*

None of Egypt’s former
rulers tried to ease the hard
lot of the fellahs whose toil
created the country’s main
wealth — cotton. As an’ Arab
saying has it, the fellah-is like
a needle — he clothes others
but remains naked himself.

The July revolution of 1952
marked the beginning of social

changes in the country. The
Nasser government was
putting an end to the big

estates and

selling the land

to the peasants with payments
in installments.

This has eased things for the
fellahs to a certain extent,
but it does not meet the land
hunger . The real job is to re-
claim millions of acres from
the desert. :

The government had boldly
set its hand to the urgent task
of extending the area of cul-
tivated land. The proposed
new Aswan Dam would raise
the waters of the Nile and add
two million feddans .to the
irrigated area — in other
words, increase it by 30 per-
cent.

Parallel with this, large
scale irrigation work has been
launched in Lower Egypt,
where the whole new province
at-Tahreer is being born on
the sands of the Libyan Desert.

*

The governor of the prov-
ince, Magdi Hassanein, invited
us to the table and we tasted
the fruits of the at-Hahreer
soil. Everything at that din-
ner, even the strawberries,
had been grown there.

After dinner Hassanein in-
vited us into his jeep and
drove us about for six hours
showing us various things of
interest.

We began with the section
where a shock team was liter-
ally attacking the desert. Sev-‘
eral dozen scrapers and bull-
dozers enveloped in clouds of
dust were biting noisily into
the yellow dunes, levelling the
sand and preparing the future
fields. Artificial embankments
will confine the distributory
ditches leading from the main
irrigation canals.

One interesting point. is,
that in addition to the Nile,
subsoil water is being used
at at-Tahreer. A great amount
lies at a depth of 50 - 65 feet;
a complex system of pumping
stations worked by diesel
engines and electricity brings
the sub-soil water to the sur-

face and impels it on to the
fields.

Picking up a handful of
coarse yellow sand, hot from
the sun, it is hard to believe
that anything could grow on
it. But the green of distant
fields and the small eucalyp-

tus trees effectively kill all
doubt.

“A little slime from the
Nile, mineral fertilizer and

water work wonders here,” he
said. “Only two years ago
this was a lifeless region of
shifting sand. It was difficult
to get funds alloted; the minis-
ters didn’t want to throw
money away. And look what
we are growing here now.”

Our car was just passing
fields of tomatoes and citrus
and mango groves. A little
farther away we could see
watermelons, golden musk-
melons and eggplants. Wheat
alternated with mulberry trees,
fields of sugar beet with tan-
gerine groves, and beyond
fields of maize lay strawberry
beds and farther on a_bril-
liant carpet of flowers.

The governor caught our
amazed glance. “The main
reason we grow flowers is
for the bees,” he said. “We
have a great many hives.”

*

The cultivation of at-Tah-
reer land is planned for 15
years. So far 24,000 feddans
have been irrigated. In the
next few years 800,000 fed-
dans are to be wrested from
the desert, then the irrigated
area will be brought up to
1,200,000 feddans.

This can be done only on a
scientific basis. In recognition
of this, chemical and bacterio-
logical laboratories, centres
for combating pests, veterinary
centres and a number of
others have been set up, and
professors from Cairo Uni-
versity have been drawn into
the work.

A great deal is being done
in the way of training skilled

By GEORGE SKOROV

*

workers. We _ visited two
schools for future bricklayers,
builders, mechanics, and in-
structors, where boys and
girls were taught separately.

One of the most important
objectives in the new prov-
ince is to build model villages,
and to popularize the new life,
to teach the fellahs cultural
habits and customs.

We visited one of three re-
cently built villages; it was
called Umm Saber, in honor
of an Egyptian woman killed
in Suez Canal zone.

Like all Egyptian villages
it consists of what looks like
a single, very elongated build-
ing. The separate cottages
stand close to one another,
with no yard ‘or plot dividing
them; land is too valuable in
Egypt to be used unproduc-
tively.

But how different were
these neat brick cottages, with
two or three rooms, kitchen
and bathroom and small shed
for chickens and rabbits, from
the ordinary clay huts of the
fellahs where people sleep on
the floor together with the
buffalo and various farm ani-
mals, where not only is there
no electricity or radio—even
pure drinking water cannot be
had.

It was only later, after
visiting a number of villages
in Middle and Upper Egypt
and seeing the hard living con-
ditions of the fellahs, that we
understood the enormous dis-
tance separating the ordinary
ones.

New. arrivals coming to live
in at-Tahreer need a little
time. to get acclimatized to the
new conditions. For six months
they have what can only be
called a training in the new
way Of life, under special in-
structors.

Discipline is strict. Beds
must be neatly made, dishes
washed and scoured till they
shine, linen washed, ironed
and ldid on shelves, clothing

SEPTEMBER 14, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE 7

hung up in wardrobes: t
is a daily inspection.
prizes for the best fami"

()}
Hassanein. told us
thing of his future plan
wants not only to be
Tahreer into a produe
fruit and vegetables for on
into a flourishing gard”
Africa, but also to
one of the new cen
national industry.

A machine works ¥ oh
built, also factories 10% ©
phorus and’ fertilizet,
piping, canned fru
vegetables, artificial
clothing and footwea!

The equipment wa> be
in Britain, Czechos!
Italy and other counts!

The government’ a d
there was not a single
specialist in the Pott
Everything was beiné © of
Egyptians, on funds iss
the Egyptian govern™ :

His enthusiasm abou
taming of the desert m0
He is confident that be
surface it holds t@™ ie
mineral wealth. He a
dreaming of mines “1
wells, of a big yd
station on a canal link’ Q
Mediterranean with th
tara Depression neat 4
mein, 400 feet below se
and so on.

Realization of 2
transform lower
ely and become a
lever for raising the
economy and culture: |

The builders of a 4,
have many difficultié® aft
with. “Enormous fun 108
quired. There is 25 sab 4
machinery, skilled ow:
searce and wages je
despite all this, peoP
with enthusiasm,

They know that th
of at-Tahreer is
away from the b

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