Egypt on Sunday presented plans for the construction of a desert city in which about seven percent of the annual Nile River quota will be redirected from the fertile delta land to pass by luxury residential units with glass facades and end in a large agricultural project.
Facing a growing water shortage, electricity constraints, and a deepening economic crisis, Egypt wants the development to help increase the value of state assets and boost land prices through “non-traditional, innovative ideas,” said Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly in a statement announcing the project.
About ten million cubic meters of Nile water will flow daily into the city of Jirian, covering an area of 6.8 million square meters, 42 km west of central Cairo, helping to irrigate the New Delta agricultural project covering 2.28 million hectares, investors said.
Three private investors signed an official agreement, with the state represented by Mostakbal Misr for Sustainable Development, an agency linked to the military. The project will include residential units, commercial zones, a yacht marina, and a free economic zone.
The new city, named Jirian, which in Arabic means “Flow,” is part of Egypt’s Nile Delta program, a massive agricultural initiative aimed at reclaiming about 2.5 million hectares west of the original Nile Delta.
The ambitious agricultural project, which began in 2021, seeks to increase the production of strategic crops like wheat and corn while reducing the food import costs of the North African country.
The project is the latest in a series of megaprojects launched in recent years by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, including the new administrative capital east of Cairo.
While officials say these projects are key to Egypt’s long-term growth, they have also contributed to the country’s growing external debt, which has quadrupled since 2015, reaching 155.2 billion dollars by the end of 2024.
The country has also received billions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) to secure its financial stability, with the EU promising billions more last month.
At the launch event on Sunday, the Egyptian Prime Minister called the Jirian project “an urban and development revolution.”
He added that it would create 250.000 jobs and serve as the foundation for a wider development zone equivalent in size to four to five governorates.
“We are talking about full-spectrum development,” he told reporters, describing a vast urban zone that will include industry, logistics hubs, and homes for “between 2.5 and 3 million families.”
The government has not disclosed the total cost of the project.
The new Nile Delta project comes at a time when Egypt is already under pressure to secure its water future.
With 97 percent of its freshwater coming from the Nile, the country is in a longstanding dispute with Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo fears could reduce downstream water flow.
Investors said the canal connected to the Nile will run through the heart of the city of Jirian, covering 1.680 hectares, making up one-fifth of its total area and serving as a scenic central feature and source of irrigation for surrounding agricultural land.
They added that the project will include luxury residences, 80-story skyscrapers, international universities, and hospitals, an environmentally friendly hotel, commercial zones, as well as a cultural and media district.
It will also be located just a few minutes from the Grand Egyptian Museum, expected to fully open in July, the pyramids of Giza, and the nearby Sphinx International Airport.
Construction began five months ago and is expected to be completed within five years, according to project investors.
