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effect on the ecology been taken into
consideration
?
Precious Sil t No Looger
Available
Whatever the
ft~ture
may bring eco–
logically, the government must build
fertilizer plants
now
to make up for the
minerals being trapped upstream behind
the dam. Sorne precious electricity pro–
duced by the dam must be diverted to
power the new fertilizer plants.
Associated with the one million tons
of trapped silt a year is the huge "scour–
ing'' effect being produced along the
Nile floor below the dam. Here river
currents wash away the sandy bottom,
no longer protected by layers of heavy
sil
t.
If
this process were left unchecked,
the four barriers built below the dam
would collapse. To slow clown the river
and reduce "scouring," Egypt must fur–
ther lock itself into the processes of
technology. Egypt is planning to build
up to seven more subsidiary dams
between Aswan and the Mediterranean.
In effect, the Nile will become a series
of lakes.
Along with this, the government is
studying a plan to build a series of
dikes in the sea to protect the land from
inundation by sea water. In the past, silt
buildup averted this problem. These
inundations Jeave harmful amounts of
salt deposits on formerly productive
farmland.
There are other hotly contested issues
such as seepage and evaporation.
Depending on the authority one listens
to, the dangers are either "much less
than expected" or "so great as to
be
hazardous."
Egypt's Race Against
Population Increase
Consider another aspect of the project.
The Dam's total cost equalled
slightly more than one fourth of
Egypt's
1968
Gross National Product.
For the United States that would mean
sinking 250
BILLION
doUars - more
than four times the cost of the entire
civilian and military space program -
into one irrigation project.
What did Egypt get for this large
amount of money?
One estímate is that the High Dam
The
PLAIN TRUTH
will increase arable land by one third
by adding
1,300,000
new acres for
planting. However, present reclamation
projects thus far add up
only
to
300,·
000
acres. But even taking the govern–
ment figure, how effective will this
be
in solving Egypt's food problem? The
Paddock brothers in their provocative
book
FAM.INE
1975
answer:
"Alas! During the ten-year períod of
construction Egypt's population itself
will have increased by one-thírd"
(Little, Brown and Company, Boston,
Mass.,
1967,
page
47).
In other words,
Egypt is generally no better fed after
the Dam than bcfore it.
Then there is the skyrocketing future
population to contend with. Sincc the
population is currently growing at per–
haps one millíon persons per year, any
increase in food production which the
Aswan High Dam might have effected
will certainly be cancelled out by a few
years' population growth.
Sorne experts estímate that populat ion
growth has
alt'eady O!ltdiJtanced
the
increase in agricultura! yield to be
expected from the Dam's activities. At
best, Egypt's Dam has merely fore–
stalled the day of reckoning to a later
date when Egypt's problem wiU be
more massive.
Egypt is also paying a terrible mone–
tary price for whatever inaease in pro–
ductive land it is getting. One estímate
put the initial cost for each new acre
irrigated by the Aswan Dam at
$1400.
Putting this in perspective, prime Iowa
land - sorne of the best in the world -
was sclling for
$600
pcr acre.
Of course, it is still not certain that
all of the land to be irrigated at such a
great cost is suitable for farmland. Sorne
may be so sandy as to require great
additions of organic matter. To build
soil this way - and do it properly -
takes a great deal of time, effort and
expense.
In spite of all these drawbacks and
problems, many Egyptian officials look–
ing at population inaeases and food–
production índices feel the dam was the
only route to take.
The Real Solutions N eeded
Meanwhile, the relentless surge of
population continues unabated. In fact,
the one most important asset which
April 1971
Egypt possesses has not been properly
used. It is the simple factor of
time.
Had Egypt ímplemented an energetic
family-planning program when the dam
was started, results would have shown a
leveling off of populatioo in the imme–
diate future.
But Egypt clid not even start a formal
nationwíde campaign in this direction
unt il
1966
! Most observees regard it as
inadequate.
1t
has not been given the
priority ít deserves. And when approxi–
mately 80 percent of those over
15
are
illiterate ancl bound by custom it seems
unlikely that officials will make any
headway.
A nationwide educationa1 program in
proper sanitatioo would have given the
average Egyptian greater health - an
absolute prerequisite for productivity.
There has been no
~uch
program.
When we weigh all factors, we may
conclude that Egypt did not really need
the Aswan Dam.
It
needed to educate its
populace in proper methods of sani–
tation ancl to implement family plan–
ning.
lt
needecl an extensive agricultura!
research program to find out how to use
the present lancl more efficíently, and
especially how to economically use the
regular flow of the Nile for year-round
irrigation.
Had Egypt used the resources it
spent on the Aswan High Dam and
other billions spent on Soviet arma–
ments, the nation could have - with
proper lcadership and willingness on
the part of its populace - overcome its
food-production and health problems.
Egypt could have avoidcd wasting its
meager resources, and it woulcl not
have startcd clown the acldict's road of
manipulating environment.
Because this is the record of modero
history:
Any nation that Jampers with
its ecological systems is fo,.ced to
increase that tampering.
There does
come a clay when the system will no
longer accept further manipulation.
It
back6res ancl suddenly causes sickness,
starvation - ancl national death !
It is hoped that other so-called
"underdeveloped" natíons will yet heed
the warning of
El S.:tdd EL Ali
-
The
Aswan High Dam - and not find
themselves travell ing clown a road that
could lead to both starvation and
unexpected pestilence.
o