Set behind forbidding walls, these vulgarly huge complexes were built on what would otherwise have been stunningly beautiful beaches. They were geared to rich European and Gulf Arab tourists, besides the few Egyptians who could afford them. Siwa was definitely no longer a remote idyllic oasis cut off from the larger world that my guide-book touted it as. Five mineral water bottling plants had just been set up on the outskirts of the town—a heavy burden on the oasis’ precious water resources, Hasan complained. ‘We never faced water shortage in all our history,’ he went on, ‘but now, with this craze for earning money at any cost becoming an obsession, and these plants consuming our water indiscriminately, bottling it and sending it off to Cairo, we don’t know what the future might hold.’-- Yoginder Sikand, NewAgeIslam.com
http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicSociety_1.aspx?ArticleID=6319
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