The Aswan High Dam or the High Dam is a water dam on the Nile River in southern Egypt. It was established during the era of Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the Soviets contributed to its construction. Owned and operated by the General Authority for the High Dam and Aswan Reservoir, the dam has helped greatly in controlling the flow of water and mitigating the effects of the Nile flood. Used to generate electricity in Egypt. The length of the dam is 3600 metres, the width of the base is 980 metres, the width of the summit is 40 metres, and the height is 111 metres. The volume of the dam body is 43 million cubic meters of cement, iron and other materials, and a water flow of up to 11,000 cubic meters of water per second can pass through the dam. Construction of the dam began in 1960 and the total cost was estimated at one billion dollars, a third of which was written off by the Soviet Union. 400 Soviet experts worked on building the dam and its construction was completed in 1968. The last 12 electric generators were installed in 1970 and the dam was officially opened in 1971. However, the High Dam reduced the fertility of the Nile River and did not fill the outfalls in Damietta and Ras El Bar with silt, which threatens to drown the delta after more than A hundred years ago, due to some other factors, such as global warming and the melting of ice at the North and South Poles, with a negative impact on the ozone layer. It should be noted here that the first person to refer to the construction of this dam was the Arab Muslim scholar Al-Hasan bin Al-Hasan bin Al-Haytham (born in 965 AD and died in 1029 AD). He did not have the opportunity to implement his idea due to the lack of the necessary machines to build it in his time.
History of the dam.
• The World Bank refused to finance the project
• Nationalization of the Suez Canal.
• The High Dam is now affiliated with the Hydropower Stations Company for electricity production, which includes, in addition to the dam, the First Aswan Generating Station* and the Second Aswan Generating Station.
General Authority for the High Dam and Aswan Reservoir.
Dam effects.
Positive effects.
One of the positive effects of the High Dam is that it protected Egypt from flood and drought as well, as Lake Nasser reduces the flow of flood water and stores it for use in drought years.
The High Dam also worked to expand the agricultural area as a result of the availability of water, expand land reclamation, and increase the area of the agricultural area from 5.5 to 7.9 million acres. It also worked to grow more crops on the land as a result of the availability of water, which allowed three crops to be planted each year and the expansion of the cultivation of crops that require large amounts of water. It provided a large amount of water for irrigation, such as rice and sugarcane. It also led to the conversion of areas that were cultivated using the basin irrigation system to a permanent irrigation system.
He also worked on generating electricity, which benefited Egypt economically.
Negative effects.
• Lake Nasser flooded many Nubian villages in Egypt, most of them in northern Sudan, which led to the deportation of its people, the so-called Nubian migration.
• Depriving the Nile Valley from the flood silt nutritious soil.
• Increasing water sculpture around the bases of river structures.
• Erosion of the delta’s shores.
• Some estimates indicate that the amount of evaporation in the waters of Lake Nasser behind the High Dam is very large, given that it exposes a large area of water to the sun in a very hot climate, and the amount of loss is estimated to be equivalent to Iraq’s share of the Euphrates River. In addition to the spread of some plants, their adaptation to new conditions, and their contribution to the transpiration process, leading to more water loss.
• Some believe that the High Dam represents a military threat to Egypt, as it is difficult to imagine the consequences that could result from blowing up the dam, and the size of the flood that will hit the Egyptian cities located along the river’s path, which will be subject to a dangerous flood, and the Egyptian Armed Forces have taken the necessary measures to prevent this from happening.