Organizational
Organizational
First Dam
The Nile is the lifeblood of Egypt. It extends for 800 miles or more from the Wadi Halfa to southern approaches to Cairo and its six miles wide valley. Since civilization began in Egypt flood control and irrigation on the Nile have been a priority. In 1843, Mohammed Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, devised to build a barrage at the apex of the Nile Delta to raise the level of the Nile waters for irrigation. But this barrage was not efficient enough to function properly. Not until the British occupied Egypt was the barrage re-evaluated and fixed by British engineers, this lead to further control and the eventual construction of the Aswan Dam in 1902, a monumental feat in its time.
Consequently, Egypt prospered from the construction of the Dam, but for only a few years, floods continued to plague the Nile and population explosion forced the government to re-evaluate the matter and eventually the dam was raised in 1912. It did not stop there even after the raising there was still a need for more water to irrigate the land to grow more crops for there ever growing population and in 1933 the dam was raised a second time to the level its at today. The same problems continued through the 30’s and 40’s though, but the coming of the Second World War stopped negotiations and the Egyptian government focused on its role in the war.
After the war though talks focused on the dam again and there were talks of raising the dam a third time. At this point an agronomist by the name of M. Daninos produced a “century storage” proposal to construct a new & immense reservoir at Aswan with a massive hydroelectric plant. He also added that the whole project would be under Egyptian rule and would be embarked upon without lengthy diplomatic negotiations, to avoid the Nile waters being used as a political weapon.
Century Storage
As the years passed by Daninos’ “century storage” proposal was explored more and more by the Egyptian government. Negotiations soon began between the British, Egyptian, Ethiopian governments and Sudan. Questions soon arose on the distribution of the water on the Nile especially to the people of Sudan, but those were questions that would be settled after its completion. The main obstacle for the dam was the treaties the Egyptians had with British, which they denounced and broke, taking the steps needed to control the Nile waters.....
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