The new £7.6bn man-made river in Africa that will become the world’s biggest

An incredible new canal is set to transform Egypt’s landscape.

The North African country is building the world’s largest artificial river, which will transform 9,200 square kilometres of desert into a new Nile Delta. 

The £7.6billion artificial river will see a 70-mile canal irrigate 1.2 million acres of desert into farmland, creating a region called The New Delta. 

Announced in March 2021 by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the project will involve new canals and artificial rivers to redirect agricultural wastewater from the Delta to a new water treatment plant which is capable of treating 5 million cubic metres per day. 

The project will create a list of benefits, such as increasing Egyptian food security, exports, and helping solve the water scarcity problem.

The major infrastructure project will be carried out by contractors such as Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors. Once fully funded, the artificial river is estimated to take between five to seven years to be fully operational. 

The Egyptian Government has identified The New Delta as a high national security priority with the plan also to include new cities around the canal. 

Despite great advances in the initiative since the announcement, critics have argued the project is unrealistic due to its sheer scale and technicalities. 

However, the outcome is set to create a huge number of jobs which will benefit Egypt’s expanding population. 

Abbas Sharaky, professor of Water Resources and Irrigation told Smart Water Magazine: “The artificial river project is one of the most important water projects in recent years in terms of construction engineering and economic importance.

“It is a giant engineering work consisting of three channels that are constructed in different conditions from the rest of the irrigation channels in Egypt, as it transports water to desert areas that are more than 100 metres above the Nile River level.”

The artificial river will serve as a conduit for transferring water from the al-Hammam plant, which holds the title of being the world’s largest treatment facility globally, as well as using a segment of available underground water.