Basic HTML Version
SCENES AT ASWAN
-
Top,
Soviet Presiden! Podgorny (left)
with Egyptian Presiden! Soda!
(right) ct Aswcn hydro power
station. Bottom, state of construc–
t ion at Aswan Dam si te dur ing
late 1967.
Sov. Pl>otos
its irrigation projl!cts are in
UPPER
Egypt - where the healthier segment
of the population heretofore resided.
Even with the strictest precautions, at
least one million persons not now
affected by the disease will be exposed
to it. As mentioned, W.H.O. experts
put the figure of newly infected Egyp–
tians at six million.
Egyptian malaria specialists have also
urged the government to establish exten–
sive treatment facilities for victims of
malaria. They fear the Aswan Dam
could triggcr a repcat of the 1942 epi–
demic. That year malaria swept Egypt
from thc south, killing more than
100,000 persons.
For Egypt, disease is not a modern
plague. It is as old as the nation itself.
When the people of Israel left Egypt
over 3400 years ago, they wcre told:
"And thc Lord will take away from
thee all sickness,
and
wili
pm none of
the evil diseases
of
Egypt,
which thou
knowest, upon thee; but will !ay them
upon all them that hate thee" (Oeut.
7:15).
Today, Egypt is multiplying those
diseascs by relying on man-mac.lc dams
and irrigation projccts which Western
nations warned could
be
disastrous.
Nevertheless, Egypt has embarked on
the modero technological road. She is
attempting to control processes of
oature with simplistic solutions of mod–
ero technology. These managed, man–
made "monosystems" cannot takc the
place of intrinsically complex natural
systems - no matter how difficult the
natural systems are to bear.
Kill ing Off thc Nation's
Fishing Industry
Not only is Egypt bringing on new
problems, it is also destroying sorne
plus bencfi.ts from natural ecosystcms
which it previously enjoycd.
Take Egypt's Mediterranean sardine–
fishing industry. The sea is poor in
nutrients exccpt wherc the Nile
med
lo
discharge its rich burden of organic silt.
We say "uscd to" becausc it doesn't
anymore - not since thc Nasser High
Dam went into action.
In pre-Dam days the Egyptian sar–
dine industry topped 18,000 tons,
worth $7 million dollars. (Sardines
amounted to almost half thc total fish
catch.)
Now that Nasser Dam holds back the
silt, the sardine industry runs about 500
tons annually.
Also, coastal sand-bars, which used to
create lakcs, are disappearing now that
the Nile no longer dumps its sedi–
ments in the arca. About 19,000 people
who have always reared tish in shallow
basins to stock the lakes may soon be
out of work.
Meanwhile Am<:ricao University of
Beirut scientists are finding thc salt con–
tent ami tempcrature of the eastern
Mcditerranean are both being raised as
a result of the Aswan High Dam.
One biologist, Dr. John Burchard,
belicvcs the salinity - bctween 38.7
and 39.8 ppm in mid-1970 - is prob–
ably close to thc tolerance limits for
sorne flsh.
Thc Mcditerrancan tishing industry is
not thc only one to feel the pinch of a
controlled Nile. Lower Nilc Valley
farmers, once uscd to cxtrcmely fertile
land, must now trcat their land with
artificial fertilizers. Perhaps a small
monctary pricc to pay for the Dam.
But has artificial fertilizers' future