Egypt’s Urban Expansion Depletes Nile Farmland
SHUBRA KHIT, Egypt — Lush green farms once stretched all around the Nile River, the fertile dark soil a vital source of life since the Pharaonic times, when ancient Egyptians developed some of the first sophisticated farming methods in the region.
Now, red-brick urban settlements are springing up everywhere, snuffing out farmland to make way for the growing population in this country of about 90 million people.