The Sinai Peninsula, a project zone
p. 94-95
Texte intégral
60,000 km2 | 552,500 | 1994 | 2011 |
Surface area | Inhabitants in 2017 | National Project for the Development of Sinai (NPDS) and the Peace Canal | General Authority for the Development of Sinai |
Source: CAPMAS, 2017 |
1In 2018, the population of Sinai was far from the 3 million inhabitants foreseen by the NPDS for 2020. With less than 1% of the resident populace, the demographic weight of Sinai is insignificant even though settlement in the south has been noticeable, experiencing a sixfold increase between 1986 and 2016. The region lacks education and healthcare infrastructure.
The fragility of tourism
2At the beginning of the 1990s the formulation of a development project was linked to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and was steered by liberal economics: State land was assigned to private investors to develop seaside resorts along the Gulf of Aqaba, pushing the Bedouin into the interior. Sharm el-Sheikh became a major tourist centre and the second airport of the country, receiving 25% of foreign visitors in 2004. This beach tourism was supported by the wealth of coral reefs in the Red Sea, which were protected within Egypt’s first national park. The town came be to be a symbol for the authorities and from 1996 was used to host international summit meetings. In 2002, the town was award the “City of Peace” prize by UNESCO, but the terrorist attacks of 2005 turned the resort into a fenced-in enclave. Its expansion continued through the development of a new customer base, above all Russian.
3The uprising of 2011 and the deterioration of the security situation brought business to a sudden halt. After the bombing of a Russian charter flight in 2015 numerous airline companies refused to fly to Sharm el-Sheikh. Despite a resumption of tourism in 2017 the sector remains vulnerable because of the tense geopolitical context, and unfinished tourist complexes dot the coast between Nuweiba and Taba.
Reconnecting Sinai
4The physical reconnection of Sinai to national territory has been at the heart of all development projects since the liberation of the peninsula. The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel was opened in 1981 and was the sole land link for 20 years. Two bridges were inaugurated in 2001, the Mubarak Peace Bridge and El-Ferdan Swing Bridge. Other projects are under construction or are planned, including six tunnels. While connections with Sinai and crossings over the Suez Canal remain a priority, security arrangements along the Canal have been reinforced since its widening in 2015, and a special economic area featuring free zones has been created. Transport infrastructure and the provision of high voltage power lines (1998) have, however, proven insufficient to boost an economy that is distanced from mainstream industrial development, despite the cement works, and oil and mineral deposits in the Gulf of Suez
Uncertain agricultural and industrial development
5The Peace Canal, begun in 1994, was intended to feed Nile water to El-Arish in order to irrigate some 200,000 hectares and be the cornerstone of development and settlement. The project was supported by Gulf money but is still incomplete. Only 10% of the envisaged surface area is under agriculture or pisciculture due to economic and technical difficulties (including soil salinity), as well as land disputes and corruption. This failure is particularly disappointing in a region that lacks just about everything, but especially water. A regional development project that was relaunched in 2011, and then again in 2017 by President Sisi, has run up against the increasing insecurity of the area.
6After the terrorist outrage at Bir el-Abd (2017), President Sisi announced that $5.6 billion would be available for development, in parallel with a military operation “Sinai 2018”. Development in the south-east of the peninsula is planned with Saudi Arabia (to a total of $10 billion), involving a future bridge over the Straits of Tiran. The low scale war with jihadi groups poses questions regarding the eventual implementation of such projects, and in the meantime a large part of the population in the north live on humanitarian aid provided by the army.
Auteur
Olivier Sanmartin, lecturer in geography, department of information-communication, IUT / University of Tours, CITERES-EMAM
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