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CLAIMED
BENEFITS
OFTHE
ASWANDAM
•
The High Da
m'
s turbines
are already cranking out half
of Egypt's electrical power.
The Dam wi/1 ultimately pro–
vide 1
O
billion kilowatt-hours
per year of cheap electricity.
•
The dam wi/1 irrigate sorne
7,300,000
acres of land
which is presently arid.
•
About
700,000
acres cur–
rently growing crops can now
be farmed more intensively
-
providing two or three
crops per year.
•
The Sudan wi/1 be able to
triple its present farmland.
•
The
7
0 -bi//ion-ki/owatt
power station has set up a
flurry of industrial schemes.
A
small industrial base is
growing
in
the dam's vicinity.
•
Egyptian officials hope the
dam wi/1 rival the pyramids
as a draw for foreign tourists.
•
Economic experts in Egypt
estímate the dam will double
the national income.
•
The High Dam wi/1 encour–
age other pro¡ects, such as
road building, providing
many
iobs for Egypt's skyrocketing
population.
•
Due to the Aswan High
Dam, Egypt became self–
sufficient in corn and export–
ed $200,000 worth of rice
in 1970.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
alternative.
The project
11' tlf
a do-or-die
proposition."
Egypt and the Soviet Uoion decided
it was time to iotervene aod alter the
basic ecological structure of Egypt.
Soviet and Egyptian bulldozers shoved
Egypt into tbe 20th Ceotury.
Has the project really achieved its
purpose? Was there a more effective
way to feed hungry Egyptian stomachs?
Look at the other results of the dam
- and the path clown wh icb Egypt has
decided to walk.
Dreaded Blood Fluke Disease
When Egypt decided to give the
green light on the project, they were
guite aware they may have been
constructing a massive F rankenstein
monster. One of the weightiest con–
siderations involved the tragic blood
lluke disease -
schistosomiasis.
Schístosomíasís or bilharziasis is
known as the scourge of the Nile. This
blood fluke disease has plagued Egypt
for centuries. The parasite's eggs have
been found in the kidneys of mummies
dating back to Dynasty Twenty.
Currently it infects 20 million people
in the Mideast, as well as multiple mil–
lions in other parts of Africa, Asia, and
Latín America.
The disease saps the victim's energy
and damages vital organs. One World
Health Organization expert describes
the blood fluke disease in this way:
"Bilharziasis brings a man to the edge
of the grave, and while he is in a weak–
ened condition, another disease pushes
him over the edge."
Wherever large dams have been built
in Africa, schistosomiasis or bilharziasis
has moved in and spread.
With perennial irrigation, and large–
scale irrigation projects, the spread of
the disease becomes alarming. Snails in
increasing numbers invade the quiet,
slow, warm waters now available in sec–
oodary and tertíary canals and ditches
which bring irrigation water to the
fields. (The disease is carried by certain
species of African snails which act as
secondary hosts of schistosomes, para–
sitie worms causing bilharziasis.)
Available figures show that when
perennial irrígation schemes are intro·
duced, the disease increases dramatically
- usually infecting from a few percent
April 1971
to over one half the population.
Sorne–
times almos! one htmdred percent of the
people
i11
the area will be affected by
the disease .
The Aswan High Dam has been
no
exception.
Before the dam, the age-old simple
technique of irrigation in Egypt kept
the invasion of soail populations largely
seasonal. As a resu lt, the disease was
kept under some measure of control.
But this will no longer be true.
In 1969, the World Health Organi–
zation estimated that
STX MTLLION
more
Egyptians would be struck by the dis–
ease when the Aswan Dam irrigation
project really got under way.
Already, the disease costs Egypt more
than $200 million a year in lost work
and medica! care. According to one
expert, bilharziasis is the United Arab
Republic's major health problem, affect–
ing about 40 percent of the population.
About 70 percent of the population in
Lower Egypt is affected. In sorne vil–
lages the rate is 100 percent.
But what about the future?
Dams and Diseases - the
Tragic Connection
Snails have survived the onslaught of
modero chemistry and thrive on the
benefits accorded to them by the irriga–
tion scheme associated with the Aswan
High Dam.
Sorne authorities feel that the spread
of schistosomiasis alone may well cancel
out the benefits of the dam. For
example, the disease causes an extreme
fatigue. It could well
REDUCE
agricul–
tura! output rather than increase it by
making farmers much less efficient.
Heavy labor for projects and farming
in Egypt traditionally have been sup–
plied from uppcr Egypt where schisto–
somiasis had a very low incidence.
Another point ínvolves Egyptian
army re.cruits. Sorne 22 percent of
recruits from Lower Egypt have been
rejected for physical defects over the
past 20 years. From upper Egypt only 3
percent have fai led to pass the exam–
ination . Reason? Parasitologists and
others believe the difference stems
largely from the high schistosome
infection rate in Lower Egypt.
The Aswan High Dam and many of