Farm Environmental and Social Impact Study (ESIA) findings
- Identified as category C by Egypt’s Environmental Regulatory body, the Egyptian Environmental Affair Agency, Canal Sugar’s project required a full fledged environmental and social impact study.
- Canal Sugar hired a certified local environmental consultant, who through examining the environmental setting of the project area, the construction and operational phases and addressing stakeholders, drew the following conclusion on the farm:
- Positive social impacts:
- Increase in employment opportunities through hiring near 1,000 employees from neighboring villages, where agriculture constitutes the main income generating activity of the governorate.
- Reduce desertification in favor of agricultural land.
- Reduce the need of crop imports
- Leopold matrix; scoped out the following impacts
- The project will have no contact with surface waters (Nile river, irrigation canals, etc) or aquatic life.
- The farm land is not intersected by flood streams, hence flash flood hazards is eliminated.
- Potential negative impacts:
| Aspect | Degree of impact/ pre mitigation | Mitigation measures to minimize impact |
| Air quality- affected by dust particles from soil leveling and emission from construction equipment and transport vehicles | Moderate during activity however residual impact on air quality is low due to size of the land | Dust suppression through minimum water consuming technology |
| Greenhouse gas emission during operational phase from fertilizer and chemical use | Moderate and of long duration | Crop rotation, best practice use of fertilizers/chemicals |
| Soil modification and contamination | Contamination is negligible however modification is moderate | Solid waste management system |
| Ground water, only source of water for irrigation | High to moderate from long term project duration | State of the art water application techniques |
| Habitat modification | Moderate to high | Irreversible due to change of land nature |
| Public health, traffic, local community utilities | Low due to location of the land which is away from residential areas. |