The canal inlet starts from a site 8 km to the north of Toshka Bay (Khor) on Lake Nasser.

It pumps water from Lake Nasser to be transported by way of a canal through the valley, with the idea of transforming 2340 km2 (588,000 acres) of desert into agricultural land.

The essential problem is that the Western Desert's high saline levels and the presence of underground aquifers in the area act as a major obstacle to any irrigation project.

There is also the difficulty that the clay minerals found in the soil are posing technical problems to the big wheeled structures moving around autonomously to irrigate the land.

The only objective met up to April 2012 is the diversion of water from Lake Nasser into what little of the Sheikh Zayed Canal has been built.