Windhoek
Exactly one year after work began on expanding the Suez Canal, Egyptians celebrated the completion of the canal extension last week.
Egypt’s Ambassador to Namibia, Mahmoud Fawzy Abou Dounya, who held a small reception at the Egyptian Embassy in Windhoek, said the extension would create “a new canal parallel to the existing Suez Canal and double the waterway to facilitate traffic in two directions”. Egypt spent US$8 billion on the canal extension, which was completed two years ahead of schedule.
Dounya said the extension will reduce waiting time as it allows for double the traffic using the canal per day. The canal is expected to handle around 97 vessels per day by 2023, which will improve the Egyptian economy by more than doubling its forecasted trade income.
“It will increase the country’s revenue from US$5.3 billion per annum to US$13.3 billion by 2030,” the ambassador said.
More than 43 000 workers collaborated to dig and construct the new canal, culminating in one of the most impressive labour efforts of the 21st century.
A total of 80 contractors plus dredger companies and Suez Canal authorities were deployed. The dredging works totalled 259 million cubic metres of soil at an estimated cost of US$2.1 billion.