'From High Dam to Toshka:
The Nile and Man in Egypt between Legend and Reality.' By Ahmed as-Sayyed an-Nagger.

There is no better way to trace the course of Egyptian history than to follow the stream of the Nile. For millenniums, the river has been Egypt's lifeline and the main constituent of its physical environment, where ancient Egyptians could build the first human civilization in the world.

Since time immemorial, Egyptians had built their relationship with the Nile on legends and myths indicative of their vision of the everlasting river. Quite early in the past, Egyptians started their attempts to harness the Nile. In those attempts, they were actuated by the horrors and tragic damages to lives and property caused by the alternating fluctuations of high flood and draught. The Aswan High Dam, the greatest Nile-harnessing project and the greatest ever in Egypt's history, has brought about a massive strategic transformation as well as tremendous benefits to the country.

In his book entitled 'From High Dam to Toshka: The Nile and Man in Egypt between Legend and Reality', Ahmed as-Sayyed an-Naggar reviews the Pharaonic legends related to the River Nile. He provides a description of the tributaries and sources of the river. The author further probes the High Dam project including political and economic controversies over the great project and highlights the positive impact and side effects of the project. The book concludes with an overview of Toshka project, the controversy over it and Egypt's hydraulic prospects.

Legends of the Nile
Chapter I relates ancient Egyptian legends related to the Nile, where extremely rich and diversified geography blends with peoples of different races, creating the great ancient Egyptian civilization. According to ancient Egyptians, the Nile was the centre of the world and its sources the beginning. In some of the hymns, the Nile was called the father of deities. In the month of Ba'ouna (corresponding to June) ancient Egyptians used to celebrate the "Night of Tears", because they believed that flood was caused by the tears of goddess Isis as she lamented the killing of her husband Osiris by the evil deity Sett.

Harnessing the Nile
Attempts to harness the Nile started particularly since the reign of Snosert III and Amnehat of the Middle Kingdom, when embankments were reinforced, canals dug and reservoirs built. The Fatimid era witnesses the first attempt to build a dam across the Nile. The concept, originated by the famous Arab scientist al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, could not be implemented due to huge technical difficulties.
Under the reign of Mohammad Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, many significant public works related to the Nile were accomplished, including barrages, embankments and canals. His successor Ismail followed suit. To cope with the rapid growth of population at the early 20th Century, large agricultural expansion projects were started and other projects were required to harness the river to the benefit of the country. It was then that the Aswan Reservoir was started and the Aswan High Dam contemplated.

Description of the Nile In Chapter II, the author maintains that that the Nile, as it now exists, is a modern geological phenomenon, although it was a descendant of earlier independent fluvial systems that existed some 150,000 years ago. The earlier African Nile did not reach Egypt. With the end of the rainy epoch in Egypt in the 10th Millennium BC, Egyptian tributaries gradually dried up. At present, the Nile is the longest river in the world, with a total length of 6825 km and a total water discharge of 94.5 cubic metre / year.

Story of the Dam
Chapter III elaborates on the story of building the Aswan High Dam. In 1949, the Egyptian cabinet adopted a decision to provide 13.2 billion cubic metres, to be shared by with the Sudan. A dam on Lake Kioga was started in cooperation with Uganda and while the latter could benefit from the generated electricity, Egypt could do it with the stored water, because this required approval by Kenya and Tanzania (then Tanganyika and Zanzibar) and payment by Egypt of compensations to those countries.

Then the author traces down the origins of the Aswan High Dam project to an ingenious outburst of imagination by an Egyptian entrepreneur of a Greek origin named Adrian Daninos. Touring the Nubian lands for some of his business, he came with an innovative notion of building a large dam for storing water and generating power, across the narrow stream of the Nile in that location south of Aswan.

Like Ibn al-Haytham's, Daninos' notion was not based on scientific, topographic or hydraulic studies. Probably, that was why the government authorities overlooked the proposal at the time. However, after the 1952 Revolution, a decision was taken in October 1952 to study the proposal. A panel of three French, American and German dam experts, commissioned to examine and assess it, found the project technically feasible.

The total cost of the project, estimated at LE 460 million, then a hefty sum, was found by the World Bank to be reasonable in view of the several economic and financial gains offered thereby. However, an economic debate over the project arose between the World Bank and other donors. Although a study by the bank in 1955 confirmed that the project was economically feasible, World Bank started casting doubts at Egypt's ability to secure free currency needed to finance it, with the purpose of pushing Egypt to resort to US and Britain for finance.

Political Controversy
In Chapter IV, the author elaborates on the international dispute over the financing of the Aswan High Dam project that ended up with the signing in on August 22, 1960 of an agreement with the (former) Soviet Union to finance the project. The earlier dispute had triggered a series of Egyptians and international reactions starting with the nationalization of the international Suez Canal Company and ending with the Anglo-French-Israeli aggression against Egypt. The project was however successfully completed in 1971.

Four years after the death of President Nasser, a vehement and unobjective campaign against the project was launched. Debates moved from the press to the People's Assembly. The author suggests that the campaign was intended as an attempt to settle political accounts with the Nasserite era and friendship with the Soviets.

An objective assessment
He further points out that the Aswan High Dam itself settled that dispute, when it saved Egypt from the scourge of awful draught that hit the sources of the Nile from 1979 to 1987, causing terrible famine in Ethiopia and Tanzania. Thanks to the Aswan High Dam, Egypt remained high, dry and secure during the years of high flood in 1964, '67,'75, '88, '96 and '98. Through Lake Nasser, Egypt could even added more water resources to its stock.
In Chapter VI, the author lists the positive effects of the project, including expansion of cultivable land, addition of extra electric power, protection against dangers of high flood and draught, among others. On the other hand he lists the negative side effects, most of which are being addressed through technical and corrective measures.
In general, the substantial gains from the Aswan High Dam project are huge compared to its marginal side effects.

Toshka
The concluding Chapter overviews the ongoing mega national project of Toshka. The project aims at reclaiming and cultivating huge area of desert land in southern Egypt, using water savings offered by the Aswan High Dam. The author remarks that a huge venture of this caliber would normally be a subject of controversy at home and abroad. He also remarks that there has been relatively softer criticism of the project than in the case of the Aswan High Dam.

Conversely even, some foreign countries and Arab and international investors have shown interest, with some starting involvement in the Toshka project. This can be attributed to Egypt's current friendly relations with the US and other major powers as well as the Nile basin countries. Moreover, the current world situation is different from the cold-era era during which the Aswan High Dam was being built.