Blue and White Niles

The Gift of the Nile

Ancient Egypt birthplace modern hydraulic engineering

Man made reservoirs, canals, flood control and measurement devices

Reliance on annual flood of NileSilt refertilize fields on banksBuild up of Nile Delta, farm and fish(phytoplankton, shrimp, sardines…)

Nile Delta

Transformation Under Mohammed Ali 1830s

-manage irrigation to permit more crops -crop rotation: local food; export cotton,

sugar-cotton, sugar finance industrialization-British blocked, Egypt raw cotton-his successor indebted, canal debacle-British takeover, drive to control floods

Aswan Low Dam

-idea to control floods, not stop-regulated release for irrigation-generate hydroelectricity-built to let silt through-farming technology still “primitive”-still occasional huge flood overwhelmed

Aswan Low Dam

After the RevolutionPro-Western monarchy ousted 1953Nationalist regime wants modernizationFocus High Dam - not moderate annually but control over

decades, massive water storage-huge increase in power for industry-reclaimed much more land-major increases agricultural productivity US refused aid, 1957 invasion and destruction1958 Soviet Union promises assistance

Aswan High Dam

High Dam – the costs-No more silt - shift to chemicals-brick industry crisis (farmland)-destroy Med. Fisheries-Delta shrinking-water quality declining-soil salination-rising water table-Lake Nasser – silting behind dam turbines often jammed water loss double expected-weather changes, monuments in Upper Egypt-canals drainage – weeds, 80% increase schistosomiasis – incidence, virulence

Aswan Temple Paintings

Temples of the Philae

Abu Simbel

Schistosomiasis

Advanced