Synopses & Reviews
The Pharaohs were masters of the Nile: they had a subtle understanding of the ways of the river. The Egyptians of today see themselves as heirs of the pharaoh tradition and sole owners of the Nile waters. In their scheme to open up a new valley they forgot the dire warning of the fourteenth- century Ethiopian Negus, Dawit II: The water of the river in my country will be stopped from reaching yours, which I shall cause to die of thirst. This warning is still relevant: in all upriver countries, numerous irrigation schemes will progressively reduce the amount of water descending to Egypt. It is true that, by 1960, Egypt needed to protect its increasingly populated valley from the potential ravages of the annual inundation. So it was decided to build a dam. But where? The builders should have resisted the temptation to place it near Aswan and chosen a site further up the valley of Nubia, in the region of Tushka. There, a smaller dam would have sufficed to evacuate the excess floodwaters towards the fossil valley of the Pre-Nile and made it unnecessary to drown more than 250 km of a charming valley. Author: Emeritus Professor Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, Paris, Former President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE).
Synopsis
The Pharoahs were masters of the Nile: they had a detailed understanding of the ways of the river. Modern Egyptians see themselves as heirs to this tradition, and as owners of the Nile waters. In the 1960's, Egypt decided to protect its increasingly-populated Nile valley from the ravages of annual flooding by building a dam. A relatively small dam in the valley of Nubia, in the region of Tushka, would have enabled the excess floodwaters to safely be diverted towards the fossil valley of the pre-Nile. However, it was decided to select a site near Aswan, making it necessary to inundate more than 250km of river valley. Over the years, this strategy has been revealed to have been faulty, and numerous irrigation schemes in upriver countries have progressively reduced the amount of water descending into Egypt. The dire warning of the 14th century oracle appears to be prophetic: the water of the river in my country will be stopped from reaching yours, which I shall cause to die of thirst...