Since Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel in 1979 the development of
Sinai has been one of the foremost aims of the Egyptian government, which
hopes that in the near future at least three million Egyptians will live on the
presently still thinly populated peninsula. Many new communities have been
established along the coast between Suez and Et-Tor, mainly concerned with
the exploitation of oil at the Gulf of Suez. The Salam Canal, which is to bring
Nile water to the northern part of Sinai for irrigation purposes in desert land
reclamation projects, is presently under construction. There have also been
efforts at land reclamation east of the Suez Canal (see Ibrahim 1985b), and a
long-term project supported by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) for
the sedentarization of the Sinai Bedouin is going on. By providing them with
food, wells and building materials for houses, the intention is to encourage
this group to start engaging in agricultural activities. The Bedouin’s response
has not been too positive so far. Their integration into the country’s formal
economy may take time. Presently their cultivation of drugs in the remote
valleys of Sinai is a serious problem, against which the government has had
to take severe measures repeatedly.