By: William K. Shenouda

The Role of Aswan High Dam(Egypt)

in Development and Water Management

1- The Aswan high dam [AHD] built through [1964-1970] is considered the most remarkable achievement to harness the River Nile [R N] and make a comprehensive use of waters. RN supplies Egypt with more than 90% of its surface waters. The RN flow fluctuates between 42 and 150 billion cu. meters, [average 84 cu. km.] depending on the precipitation on the Egyptian and Great Central African lakes plateaus. 85% of the river yield occurs during the flood period [August-October] silt laden from the Ethiopian plateau. A great portion of the flood waters was released through the sluice gates of the seasonal dams constructed in the first three decades of the 20th century to avoid silting of their reservoirs.

With the continuous increase of population, it was imperative to reserve more flood waters to satisfy the need of food and fiber and to protect the country from flood hazards. Researchers of the physical department of the Ministry of Public Works headed by Dr. Hurst deduced the theory of over-year storage, to store the excess of flood waters instead of releasing it into the Mediterranean Sea to be used in years of deficiency. The life storage capacity was determined to this theory by 90 cu. km. as the site could have a capacity of 30 cu .km, and an excess flood storage room of 44 cu .km were also available.

2- The AHD has succeeded in fulfilling its role as a multipurpose follows:

2-1Irrigation and water management.

2-1-1.The excess water that raised Egyptian yearly quota from 48 to 55.5 cu km enabled the expansion in cultivated area from 5.7 to 8.5 million feddans (acres). It also raised the area planted with rice from 400 to 1500 thousand feddans.

2-1-2.The availability of water at the proper time, with the required quantities has raised the yield of all crops. As an example, the unit area (feddan) of rice has risen from 1.43 tons before the dam to 1.98 tons in 1997, and the wheat yield from 0.77 to 1.99 tons at the same period. All crops have recorded similar.

2-1-3.Flood control:

The dam has saved the country from flood catastrophes in several years, first was at the completion of stage one in 1964, in 1975, 1989, and 1996, 1997.

2-1-4Guarantee against droughts:

During the 1980’s of the last century, dryness hit the two central African plateaus, and the nine countries sharing the River Nile, and its tributaries, Egypt managed to escape the famine and all the shortage in the flow of water through 9 successive years. During this period about 78.8 cu. km of water were released from the reservoir in addition to the natural flow, this quantity would cover the country’s requirement for 15 months.

2-1-5Power Generation

The hydro-power station generating a total installed capacity of 2.1 million kw has produced some 200,871 G.W.H from 1967 through 1988, saving 50 million tons of “mazout” (oil), equivalent which would have cost $ 4000 million. The permanent and the controlled flow of water from the reservoir has almost doubled the power generated from the station of the Old Aswan Dam, and initiated the construction of its second power station in 1985.Two more hydro-power stations were constructed on Esna and Nag Hammadi dams, as run-off the river ones due to the permanent guaranteed flow. One more power station is planed to be constructed on Assiut in the following few years.

2-1-6.Inland Navigation

Due to the controlled flows from the dam all over the years, the draft in the river course improved the navigation conditions, we may mention as an example the increase in the number of tour cruise boats from a few to some 280 in the river, and 7 cruise boats in the lake.

There are some concerns and other benefits of less importance in the role of Aswan High Dam. (Referred to Paper 77 published in the Beijing conference 2000 titled “Benefits and Concerns associated with AHD)