Aswan High Dam [Africa and the Middle East]
The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed in the 1970s as a means to provide irrigation water, electricity, and flood control. However, the available water is only half of the amount originally expected due to evaporation and losses from seepage in unlined canals. The elimination of nutrients onto farmland required expensive fertilizer, while the depletion of nutrients into the Mediterranean Sea led to a decline in fish catches. The proliferation of snails has caused an epidemic of schistosomiasis.
Located on the Nile River, the Aswan High Dam and its reservoir, Lake Nasser, demonstrate the kind of debate that surrounds a project with such important economic and ecological effects. According to G. Tyler Miller, Jr., the pros of the dam are:
- supplying 1/3 of Egypt’s electricity
- storing and releasing irrigation of water, thereby minimizing the harmful effects of droughts
- allowing for year-round irrigation, thereby increasing food production
- providing flood control in the lower Nile basin
On the other hand, Miller describes many disadvantages, such as:
- preventing the flow of fertile soil during the yearly floods. The soil used to fertilize the Nile floodplain, but now it builds up in Lake Nasser, slowly filling in the reservoir. The soil also used to build up on the coastal delta where the Nile met the Mediterranean Sea. Because it can no longer do so, the coast is eroding.
- requiring more expensive commercial fertilizer by reducing the amount of plant nutrients available
- increasing salinization by blocking the natural washing process during the yearly floods
- disturbing the ecological balance by blocking 94% of the water that once flowed into the Mediterranean Sea from the Nile River
- harming certain fishing industries by preventing nutrients to reach the river’s mouth, while helping certain fishing industries by creating Lake Nasser
- requiring the relocation of 125,000 people in order to create the reservoir
More pros and cons concerning the Aswan High Dam will appear in the next few years, but the debate between those who believe that the dam is an beneficial overall and those who do not will not end soon.
Related Links
Water-Borne Diseases, Water Shortages in the Middle East
Thinkquest Team "Fish," March 2005, Disclaimer and copyright information
Image source: Michael Barron
