The High Dam : A Bless Or A Curse

Hopefully insh Allah this will not be the last post about the high dam jubilee

Last January 15th 2010 Egypt has celebrated the jubilee of launching the high dam aka Aswan Dam construction in 1960. Unfortunately we did not celebrate it as it should because of the heavy rains that hit Aswan. We were supposed to have more celebrations especially that three countries are participating in the event : Egypt , Russia "for its huge support" and Syria 'as we were one country then'. It is great anniversary for sure and it is sad that younger generations do not know or understand its importance or its controversy.

I would like in the start to assure you that I am not a Nasserite. This is important fact I hope you put it in your mind while reading this post hopefully till end.

With no doubt I believe building the dam in 8 years "4 years during the war with Israel" was more than great achievement , I will not  execrate if I say that the Aswan high dam  was our great pyramid of the 20th century. I believe it was and is from the true achievements of Nasser with no doubt just like the nationalization of Suez canal.

The high dam project was the real first national project in the 20th century . Egyptians from ages, from all classes , from all backgrounds,ethnics and religions were participating in building this dam and standing against the mighty Nile river and the whole world too. Of course the Nasser's propaganda machine played a very role in positioning this project in the hearts and minds of Egyptians then , still I the dam proved to be more than a propaganda project after 50 years.

I know that there is a huge controversy about this huge project from political point of view , from economic point of view ,  from ecological point of view and from national security point of view. Those who are against the dam have different reasons to be so but not all the reasons are right. We should think in the right way comparing pros and cons of the dam then and now so we can be objective and fair.

The reasons of having the dam are simple to understand : To tame the Nile flood , to reserve water for drought time and to generate electricity. 

You do not know how the Nile flood was so destructive , you only have to see the Nile river water reaching to the Sphinx then you have a little image. The Palace of Khedive Ismail at Giza where he used to live in was drowned in the flood in the 18th century. We are speaking then about Giza and Cairo , well you can imagine how Upper Egypt used to suffer. Huge losses in lives and homes making the flood a bless and curse at the same.

Yes the flood brought the mud but how Egypt was with drought !!?? If you open any of Judaism , Christianity and Islam holy book , you can have a little glimpse of how Egypt suffered in time of drought through the story of Joseph. If you are a  secular who believes only in science , well I recommend you to read the Al-Maqrizi's books about Egypt in the middle age and how this land witnessed horrible famines. Ok the previous example is not that good , after all Al-Maqrizi could be execrating , then you must check the 1930s and 1940s press to see how the people suffered because of the floods forced to be displaced from their houses which usually drowned not to mention the flood sometimes brought with it malaria. Ok this is in the 1930s and 1940s , what about the drought that hit East Africa last century !!? You had then a water source that did not dry in those years despite having a bad minister of agriculture then

I do not know if I should speak about the electricity which now we are exporting to other Arabic countries reaching to Syria but it is enough that this huge energy is produced through a renewable source we must thank God for.

The idea of taming the river was not the second half of the 20th century idea on the contrary but rather old an one . During the Islamic era Alhazen was living Egypt when he was ordered to find a solution to the flood problem. He proposed the idea of a dam but it seemed impossible to implement then. Then in the 19th century the idea was revived again in a simpler way : The Aswan reservoir aka Aswan low dam

The construction works of the reservoir started in 1898 and was inaugurated in 1902, still it was not enough to regulate or rather tame the floods and river Nile. In 1946 the dam almost overflowed and thus the government then began to think about another bigger modern dam but of course during that time it was hard to implement such big project.

The idea of the dam as we know it now came in 1954 and America was going to fund the project if it were not for the difference in political opinions that made the leader of the free world stood against the project.Politically I believe the West paid a huge price of not supporting Egypt in building this dam more than we did ; the Soviet union had a strong alley in the Middle East : Egypt. This was a huge strategic mistake regardless of what the Americans thought at that time. I think that the West of the United States then believed we could not complete the project nor it would be successful but they were wrong.

I disagree with those who hate the dam just because it was from iconic projects of President Nasser's era riding the wagon of those who are against the dam for other reasons. Some of them have gone too far saying that that dam caused the 1956 Suez war as Nasser had to nationalize the Suez canal company to find a funding for the project !! The war happened for several reasons not only the nationalization of Suez canal.

Displacing the Nubians I believe was not done in the right way , The people there should have been compensated properly , the Hassan Fathi houses were not enough I am afraid. The Nuba for sure is neglected just like the rest of Upper Egypt ,it is not ethnic issue like some would like to claim . The Egyptian regime I believe since Nasser did not work hard to make the people of Nuba feel that they are Egyptians , of course our only solace is that all Egyptians have the same feeling of being alien in their own country. The Nuba problem can be solved so easily if we want too. Of course I must hint out that the Nubian activists who are jumping to the radical Egyptian Christians abroad wagon are harming the cause.

By the way Displacing the people of Nuba was not a Nasserite regime's invention, it happens all over the world when nations build dams.

Also we had to transfer our monuments to other places otherwise they would be drowned but I do not think that we had a real problem in this because the UNESCO took care of this matter in cooperation with a great minister of culture then called : Tharwat Okasha.  With my all respect to have water reserve all the time , to have access to electricity all the time and to protect millions of Egyptians in the South from the Wrath of the Nile is more important than these temples. Do not get me wrong but even the Pharaohs themselves thought in the same way. I know it sounds shocking but I am not speaking of destroying these temples but rather transferring them. At least now there are not flooded from time to time

I agree that it has bad economic and ecological side effects : The rich fertilized mud brought by the Nile river is being blocked by the dam. This accumulated mud is not only a bless but a curse now , it can threat the body of the dam not to mention it helps in building up the coastal delta which is currently eroding.  The first point was raised by experts whom were calmed down by the the builders of the dam and current dam officials that there is no danger on the body of the dam as that matter was taken in consideration. The second matter , well I think with the current climatic changes other countries with no rivers face the same issue , of course for us the matter is worse due to our regime's indifference to problem. Another problem we face is our soil salinity due to the lack of floods which I think we can use natural biofertilizers like in old days to fight it.

I am not an expert but why can't we used this high fertilized mud transferring it from behind the dam to the valley in some way or another !!?? I think if we have a real serious government that thinks in the future this would be from its priorities.

We have fantastic brains can solve these problems , after all we built the pyramids and this dam too. It is common perception that those who designed this dam were actually army officers from Nasser's office , well there were not army officers with all my due respect to the army "I swear I do" they were from the brilliant minds of architects this country have seen like for instance former minister Hassab Allah El-Kafrawy.

Our political relations with the Nile basin countries are be improved through politics and joint economic projects, already this is what is happening as currently we are investing in Ethiopia. Already I believe it was and is our right to build this dam. 

Now there is a stupid con I have heard recently , in any future war Israel will bomb the dam and drown us !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course this stupid con is based on the threat of our dear Israeli friend Lieberman before becoming a minister and regardless the fact that Aswan has an air defense system as powerful as the one currently protecting Cairo and according to sources the army took Lieberman's bluffs seriously upgrading the systems all the time , this is just nonsense and bluff from Lieberman. Of course Israel is not that stupid because it knows if it brings down the dam on our heads ,the first thing we will hit is their precious Dimona reactor and let Armageddon start in the world as simple as that .

I want to say something the pros and cons of this dam to Egypt are just like the pros and cons of any  dam in the world even in developed rich countries. We have knowledge and technology that we did not have back in the 1960s and we can use them to increase our benefit from the dam and also to solve its side effects.

The agriculture in Egypt is not affected negatively by the dam but rather with bad deliberate wrong policies. The dam is not responsible that hundreds of Egyptian villages do not have access to water or electricity nor it is responsible of  the dam that we are currently wasting its reserved water in north coast swimming pools, it is the responsibility of the regime.The dam just like the various resource this land has not been used as it should after all those years.

I know I am from the Pro-dam team ,still I hope that I explained why I support it in this post.

Photo sources:

Queen Nazli's visit report from Dr. Ahmed Kamel Royal photos collection

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