Relocation
Many peasants and valuable archeological artifacts were forced to move as a result of the threat of a possible flood from Lake Nasser. Matt Rosenberg explains this tragedy,
“Over 90,000 Nubians had to be relocated. The government was also forced to…dig for artifacts before the future lake would drown the land of the Nubians” (Rosenberg, 1).
In addition to the negative effects of relocating people and artifacts, the dam has also had negative affects on the environment.
No More Annual Floods
Since the annual floods from the Nile River no longer occur, the sediments and silt that were carried all throughout the region are trapped, and as one scientist explains,
“Sediment is primarily retained in an extremely dense network of irrigation and drain channels, and also in wetlands in the northern delta” (Stanley, 1). This lack of natural fertilizer has resulted in an increase in erosion of the river and Nile Delta, and an increase in the use of chemical fertilizers, which is evidenced by Figure 2. Chemical fertilizers have to be imported and thus cost money for the farmers that grow their crops, and it also causes pollution of the surrounding environment due to runoff. The chemical fertilizers contain high levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorous which are harmful because they flow from the cropland to the water. Both of these elements are known to cause an increase in algae and algal blooms; algal blooms and the increasing erosion present a problem to fish because both contribute to an increase of particles in the water, which can occasionally clog the fish’s gills, suffocating them. Also, Lake
Nasser has experienced an increase in the growth of plant life in its stagnant waters; this plant life supports the snails that carry the debilitating disease schistosomiasis.
Despite the initial fall in population and the recent rise in pollution and plant life, fisheries have managed to revive themselves over the past forty years.
Figure 2. Consumption of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash Fertilizers in Egypt. http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/y5863e/y5863e0a.htm
Fishery History
As evidenced by Figure three, the sardine fishery near the Egyptian coast declined after the Aswan Dam was built, however, since the 1980’s, it has been gradually increasing. Sayed El-Sayed explains the affect that the dam had on the fish populations after the dam was constructed, “The average fish catch declined from nearly 35,000 tons in 1962 and 1963 to less than one-fourth of this catch in 1969…
Since the late 1980s, the total fish catch off the Egyptian coast has grown to levels comparable to those that existed before construction of the dam” (Sayed, 1). The reasons for the revival of the fisheries are unknown, but whatever the reason, they are very encouraging.

Figure 3. Total fish and sardine catches off the Egyptian coast between 1962 and
1992. http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD3.1/Elsayed/elsayed.html
Freshwater Resources
Lake Nasser is experiencing alarming rates of evaporation because the Lake was formed over a region that is very dry and hot. The water loss from the lake is, “…one of the national problems, because the lake is the water bank of Egypt and the evaporated water range between 10 to 16 billion cubic meter every year, which represent 20 to 30% of the Egyptian income from Nile water” (Shalhout, 1). Egypt and other northeastern countries in Africa, as evidenced by Figure 4 are already water stressed, and since Egypt is experiencing further population growth, the need for freshwater will become an even greater problem, Figure 5. How Egypt will cope with the increasing population and the demands from the surrounding countries to use the freshwater from the Nile River will become one of the most important concerns in the future.

Figure 4. Amount of freshwater Figure 5. Amount of freshwater available available per capita/year in km3 in per capita/year in km3 in 2025
2005