Irrigated Fields

The economic viability of this huge project has been unclear. It’s impossible to say exactly how much the Toshka Project has cost so far—estimates of the project’s final cost range up to $70 billion USD.

If more water were to be pumped from Lake Nasser to irrigate hundereds of thousands of hectares of farmland outside the Nile basin, the lake may spill into the Toshka lakes only when there is flooding rains upstream. That's what happened in late 2019. The animation below uses images from Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 to show the eastern lake filling to capacity—and more—starting in early October.

Will people find enough incentive to move to the area and develop it into a “New Nile Valley”? Landsat will continue to track the status of the Toshka region and its agricultural development.

Toshka Lakes 2019 animation

Imagery

Dec. 8 and 15, 1989, Landsat 4 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Aug. 19 and 26, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Aug. 19 and 28, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Aug. 23 and 30, 2017, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

July 3 and 12, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Dec. 3, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 175/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Mar. 24 and 18, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Nov. 22 and 29, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Feb. 9, 10, 2022, Landsat 9, 8 (path/row 176,175/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Feb. 12, 13, 2023, Landsat 9, 8 (path/row 176,175/44) — close-up of irrigated fields near the Toshka Lakes, Egypt