The Aswan Dam

For thousands of years, the Nile River overflowed its banks each year as heavy summer rains in the mountains of East Africa swelled it into a torrent. The annual flooding carried dead and decaying plants in its muddy flow. This nutrient-rich sediment, called silt, created excellent topsoil for Egyptian farmers.

The Dream

For more than a century, Egyptian leaders have dreamed of building a dam to control the Nile River. In addition to regulating the Nile’s flow, a large dam could store water for Egypt’s dry season, and rushing waters flowing from the dam could provide Egypt with a free supply of hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity is electric power generated by the movement of water.

The First Dam

The British built a dam in Aswan, southern Egypt, in 1902. What is now called the Aswan Low Dam or the Old Aswan Dam was, at that time, the largest masonry dam in the world. Despite its size, the original Aswan Dam was unable to provide Egypt with proper control of the great river. Further, the original dam did not retain a large reservoir of water for use during the dry season.

Nasser

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser hoped to build a larger dam. In 1956, Nasser asked the United States and Great Britain for financial assistance. The Western nations refused because of Nasser’s close ties with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a military superpower dominated by Russia. The United States and Britain were engaged in a period of hostilities with the Soviet Union. These hostilities were known as the Cold War. The Cold War lasted from 1947 until 1991. Although the hostilities did not develop into World War III, both sides sought to influence developing nations such as Egypt. When the two Western nations refused Nasser’s request for financial assistance, the Egyptian president seized control of the Suez Canal. He then asked the Soviet Union for assistance in building a larger dam at Aswan, and received it.

The Dam is Built

The Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970. The new dam controlled annual flooding of the Nile, but it brought both benefits and consequences for the Egyptian people. By holding back water, the Aswan Dam created Lake Nasser, the world’s largest man-made lake. The water from Lake Nasser provided new fishing areas. The Aswan Dam also enables Egyptian farmers to grow an extra crop each year by releasing water into the Nile during the dry season. The dam has also boosted tourism in Egypt because the Nile’s water level is now reliable enough for cruise ships to navigate the ancient river for most of the year.

Critics of the Dam

Critics charged that building the Aswan Dam was unwise. The project was far more expensive than originally expected. Further, since the creation of the Aswan High Dam, farmers along the Nile have had to rely on expensive chemical fertilizers because the annual floods no longer deposit the rich silt that once renewed their fields. Fish had once thrived on nutrients carried by the silt, and the people downstream depended on fishing from the river. Without the food in the muddy water, fewer fish are able to survive. The human impact of the Aswan High Dam was also great. More than 100,000 Egyptian people and an additional 50,000 Sudanese people were forced to move because their homes would soon be under the water held back by the Aswan High Dam.

The Aswan High Dam was a tremendous technological achievement, but building it was a controversial decision that has been debated for more than fifty years.