The Toshka Project Of Egypt: A Multidisciplinary Engineering Education Case Study

Work is currently underway in southern Egypt to connect Nasser's Lake to a natural depression, located westward in Toshka, with a 300 km (185 miles) channel, then direct the lake's surplus water up North towards the Mediterranean Sea. Nasser's Lake is the world's third largest lake, and the largest man-made freshwater lake in the world, located upstream of Aswan High Dam in Egypt. The Toshka depression is located southwest of Aswan near the Egyptian-Sudanese borders. Started in 1998, the Toshka Project will eventually create a New Valley in the western desert of Egypt, parallel to the well known prehistoric River Nile Valley. Some of the most sophisticated of the 20th Century technologies are applied in that project. The project, scheduled to be completed in 2004, is expected to have far reaching effects, locally and globally, on many disciplines such as land reclamation, agriculture, water resources management, energy, housing, transportation, highways, industrialization projects, business, economy, infrastructure, construction industry, environment, ecology, geology, geography, archaeology, tourism, and others. The author administered a study abroad course in Egypt from May 30 June 11, 2001 to investigate that impressive project. This paper is a report that summarizes information and observations gathered first-hand in word, picture, and video, during that course. The infrastructure of the Toshka project include the Intake Canal, the Main Pumping Station (or Mubarak Pumping Station -largest in the world), the Toshka Canal (or Sheikh Za-yed Canal), Water Production Wells and Artificial Charging, and Wind & Sandstorm Breakers. The Toshka Project of Egypt represents a useful multidisciplinary engineering education case study. This includes the technologies used in its construction and the project's Page 7.188.1 Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education effects back on those technologies in light of lessons learned, as well as on other areas in the 21st Century and beyond.