What is New Valley Project?
{{coord|22.494795|N|28.579559|E|display=title}} [[File:Sheikh Zayed canal3.JPG|thumb|Sheikh Zayed canal of New Valley project, Libyan desert, Egypt]] [[File:Toshka syphon construction site.jpg|thumb|Construction site (2010) of the syphon that delivers water from the new valley project under the toshka spillway]] The '''New Valley Project''' consists of building a number of [[canal]]s, to be able to [[irrigation|irrigate]] parts of the [[desert]] in [[Egypt]] for the purpose of [[agriculture]]. The project was started in 1997. Its main canal should cover a distance of {{convert|310|km}}. In 2012, it was still {{convert|60|km}} away from the oasis it was supposed to reach. Other problems of the project include the fact that the [[soil]] is very [[salt]]y in the desert, and that there are underground [[aquifer]]s, which are a problem for the canals. When the land is irrigated, the salt would mix with the aquifers and would reduce access to [[drinking water]]. The [[clay]] [[mineral]]s found in the soil are posing technical problems to the big wheeled structures moving around autonomously to irrigate the land. Often their wheels get stuck in a little bowl created by wet clay that dried, and the irrigation machines come to a standstill. The only objective met up to April 2012 is the diversion of water from Lake Nasser into what little of the Sheikh Zayed Canal has been built. The [[Toshka Lakes]] are a by-product of the rising level of [[Lake Nasser]] and lie in the same general region as much of the New Valley Project. [[Category:New Valley Governorate]]