Case Study:
Aswan High Dam
www.sln.org.uk/geography/enquiry/images/egypt.jpg
Hail to thee, O Nile! Who manifests thyself over this land,
and come to give life to Egypt!
Mysterious is thy issuing forth from the darkness.
Watering the orchards, to cause all the cattle to live,
You give the earth to drink, inexhaustible one!
Lord of the fish, during the inundation,
You create the grain, you bring forth the barley,
Assuring perpetuity to all life.
If you cease your toil and your work,
Then all that exists is in anguish.
If the gods suffer in heaven, then the faces of men waste
away.
Then He torments the flocks of Egypt,
And great and small are in agony.
But all is changed for mankind when He comes.
He stanches the water from the eyes,
and watches over the increase of His good things.
Where misery existed, joy now manifests itself.
You are the august ornament of the earth,
Lifting up the heart of women in labor,
And loving the multitude of the flocks.
O inundation of the Nile, offerings are made unto you,
Men are immolated to you, great festivals are instituted for
you.
Come and prosper! O Nile, come and prosper!
O you who make men to live through his flocks
And his flocks through his orchards!
Come and prosper,
O Nile,
come
and prosper!
Adaptedcome,
from an
ancient
Egyptian
hymn to the Nile River.
http://www.nilebasin.org/nilemap.htm
The Nile
• The Nile moves through ten different countries,
including Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Uganda,
Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eritrea.
• In 1990 the total population of the Nile basin was
estimated at 245 million, with that number
expected to reach 859 million by 2025.
• Ethiopia contributes 86 percent of the total
annual flow of the Nile. The remaining comes
from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, the
Congo and Burundi.
Egypt Land and Population Data
Total land area:
Arable land:
Irrigated land:
Population:
Population Growth Rate:
Birth Rate:
Death Rate:
1,001,450 sq km
2%
32,460 sq km (1993 est.)
69,536,644
1.69% (2001 est.)
24.89 births/1,000 (2001)
7.7 deaths/1,000 (2001)
Benefits of the Dam
• Supplys about one-third to one-half of
Egypt’s electrical power.
• Stores and releases water for irrigation.
– Increases food production by allowing yearround irrigation of nearly 8.2 million acres of
land.
• Provides flood control for the lower Nile
basin.
• Makes Nile more navigable
http://www.internationalegyptology.com/Aswan%20dam%20diagram.gif
http://www.kesgrave.suffolk.sch.uk/learningzone/subjects/geography/aswandam.html
Disadvantages of the Dam
• Ended the yearly flooding that provided the
lower Nile basin with nutrient rich silt.
– Today, Egypt relies on commercial fertilizers to
provide crops with nutrients.
• Eliminates 94% of Nile water that once reached
the Mediterranean Sea each year.
– As a result, the ecology of the water is upset near the
mouth of the Nile.
• With less water going downstream from the
dam, saltwater from the Mediterranean has crept
slowly inland.
– The salt water mixes with the fresh Nile water and
becomes irrigation water. The resulting salinity
offsets crop yields.
http://www.kesgrave.suffolk.sch.uk/learningzone/subjects/geography/aswandam.html
Harmful Results
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Loss due to evaporation/seepage 11-15%
Sediment against dam not in fields
Shrimp industry damaged
Increase use of Fertilizers (now over 1mil
tons/yr)
Downstream shrinkage
Increased salinity
Damage monuments
Schistosomiasis and other diseases increase
High dam still floods
Political problems
Potential Future Problems
• In 1997, the Egyptian government began
transferring more water for irrigation purposes.
• Egypt might soon find itself cut-off from their free
water source.
– 80% of Lake Nasser water comes from Ethiopia.
– Ethiopia and Sudan are considering constructing
dams within their own countries.
– Many people believe that Egypt would strike militarily
at Ethiopia rather than be deprived of any Nile water.
Points to Consider
• Groups:
– Egyptians Farmers
– General Egyptian Public
– Egyptian Government
– Sudanese and Ethiopians
– Archeologists, Ecologists and Academicians
• Egyptian Farmers and General Public:
– Want their homes to stop being flooded
annually and when the dam floods
– Need silt to be applied to their fields to get a
large crop. The alternative is to use
expensive, dangerous chemicals.
– Want food to be affordable
• Archeologists, Ecologists and
Academicians
– Worried about the loss of the natural
environment
– The great loss of the historical artifacts at the
bottom of the lake and nearby areas
• Salt increase is damaging other monuments
– Change in course of river
• Environmental impacts
• Egyptian Government:
– The dam stops the annual flooding of the Nile
– Provides Egypt with much needed electricity
to become an industrialized nation
– Worry about Tourist dollars and the damage to
national monuments such as the Valley of the
Kings and the Great Pyramids.
– Egyptian pride for the ability to control a
natural force that has ruled the history of the
nation.
Other Countries
• Want to be industrialized
• Environmental impacts effect them
• Envious of Egypt's prosperity
Discussion
• Each group will argue their key points
before the head of the United Nations.
What should be done
• High dam currently exists
– Downstream countries desire dams as well
• Can anyone own a river???
– Who determines the use of a international
resource?
• Can one country tell another what they
can or cannot do?
– ex. environmental standards