This is typical in Egypt. There are or have been dozens of “plans” —- most of them half-baked, to develop parts of the desert to reduce densification and centralization in Cairo. When I lived there, the joke was always about how these developers (in cahoots with the military oligarchs) would source the water for these adventures. In practice, it makes no sense. Egypt is approaching critical water vulnerability.
As they try to develop out in to the desert, most of the projects have nothing to say about this critical resource. These developments are therefore totally unsustainable as it requires constantly importing water by truck, building enormous infrastructure from the Nile or desalination facilities plus the transport infrastructure. Even then the cost to actually change the soil composition from desert to anything less arid have absurd water costs, to say nothing of what happens when these theoretical cities have to start providing for demands of the expected hundreds of thousands or millions people.
To make matters worse, development around the city continues, and the prime agricultural lands, where water use is most efficient per calorie grown, has all but disappeared.
In Egypt, like so many other places, but especially in Africa, are increasingly vulnerable to compound effects of man-made and climate change crises. Books have been written on the corruption, but the combined effects with climate are truly frightening to contemplate.
Whatever transpires there after the proverbial well runs dry is going to make the January Revolution look like child’s play.