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l(Í
The
PLAIN TRUTH
June-July, 1970
person. Today therc is only .1bout a quartcr ¡tcre per person.
Egyptian officials, painfully aware of lhe population
pressure, are quick to cmphasize the dam's cxpected benefits.
The dam will double Egypt's electrical capacity.
lt
is also
expected to increase the nation's annual national income by
more than a half-billion dollars.
Unbiased observers, however, are concerned over thc
dam's possibly ruinous sidc dfects. Says one scientist, an out–
spoken critic of the projcct: "In a gcneration or two, the
Egyptians may wish that tbe High Dam had not been built at
Aswan."
The Nile's rich deposit of silt and sediment-
130
mil–
lion tons a year - will be lost to the vallcy of lower Egypt.
As a result, the Egyptian farmers will have to use fertilizer on
the land. The electricity to run the fertilizer plants will be
gencratcd by the dam's turbines in a rob-Peter·to-pay-Paul
fashion.
The fishing industry in the Nilc Delta and eastern Medi–
terra.nean has already bcen affectcd. Robbcd of nutrients for–
merly washed into the sea by the Nile, fish have virtually
disappeared from the mouth of the Nilc. Thc sardine catch
has been drastically rcduced from
18,000
tons in
1965
to 50
tons in
1968!
Another problem for Egypt's farmcrs is salt water from
the sea, which has been moving upstream and damaging
farmland in tbe delta. Sorne experts worry that delta marine
and plant life may also be adversely affected.
Even more troublesome in the eyes of medica( experts is
the threat of diseases both old and new spreading because of
the High Dam.
A 1968 view of the massive Aswan High Dam on the
Nile River. After len years of labor, work on the dam
and its hydroelectric facilities is nearly complete.
TA$$
from
SOVFOTO
Medica! men in Caico and at the World Health Organi–
zation in Alexandria warn that, unless proper precautions are
taken, the waters of hoth Lake Nasser and the new irrigation
systems may cncourage the spread of diseases such as malaria
and schistosomiasis ( an endemic disease caused by parasitic
worms which results in severe blood loss and tissue damagc).
Both diseases are spread by water-borne ve<.tocs - snalls in
one case and mosquitoes in the other. Thc carriers breed and
multiply in still waters like lakes and irrigation ponds.
Public hcaltb spccialists calculate that nearly
1
y
2
mili ion
more people in Egypt could contract schistosomiasis, already
widespread in the country.
But tbis is not all.
Two other discases - kala azar (caused by a parasitc
which invades the stomach) and onchocerciasis, or "river
blindness" - prcsently unknown in Egypt could take root.
They are widcspread in the Sudan and Ec¡uatorial Africa.
Medica! specialisls say the mosquitocs and flies that carry
them could flourish in the waters of Lake Nasser which back
up into the Sudan.
Despitc these prcdtCttons, Egyptian experts today are
hopeful that the adverse side effects of the great dam will be
vastly outweighed
by
its benefits.
"To keep pace with our
1
million ncw mouths to feed
every year, we must build even more High Dams," says sci–
ence ecütor Gala!. "Ours is the terrible problem of over–
population. Wc must generate more dectricity and bring
more land under cultivation.
"Without the High Dam we would face famine. We
need more High Dams not to raise our standard of living, but
merely to maintain it. Without the dam - its water, its elec–
tricity - we in Egypt are nothing."
After all is said and done, onc wonders if Egypt's trou–
bles are over or just beginning.
NOVOSTI
from
SOVFOTO