Aswan High Dam Was it worth it

1
Aswan High Dam Was it worth it?

• A case study of water storage and transfer in
  Egypt (an L.E.D.C.)
• Acknowledgement to The Geography Portal site

2
Location Aswan is about 600 kms south of Cairo
the capital of Egypt. Where is The delta The
flood plain The desert areas Libya Sudan?
3

• Facts
• The Aswan High Dam is 3600 metres long and 111
  metres high.
• The Soviet Union helped the Egyptian government
  to build the dam.
• The Aswan High Dam has 12 turbines which
  generate over 10 billion kilowatts of electricity
  every year.
• Construction started on the dam in 1960 and it
  was completed in 1971.
• 30 000 Egyptian people worked day and night to
  build the Aswan High Dam.
• Lake Nasser was created behind the Aswan High
  Dam. It is the largest artificial lake in the
  World (560 kms in length). It is named after
  Gamal Abdul Nasser, the former President of
  Egypt.

4

• The Aswan High Dam Project in Egypt, which was
  completed in 1970. The dam is built on the River
  Nile and provides
• Hydro-Electric Power (HEP)
• Irrigation water for surrounding farmland
• Water supply to the population
• Flood control.
• i.e. A MULTIPURPOSE SCHEME

5
The Advantages of the Aswan Dam
6
Helping Egypt to develop The formation of the
Lake Nasser reservoir creates HEP opportunities
and controls flooding. This helps Egypt to
develop in two ways. Firstly it provides the
electricity needed for people and industry to
increase their quality of life and to stop the
flooding which ruins so many livelihoods and
claims lives.
7
Electricity for homes and industry HEP is used
to generate electricity that is taken to homes
and industries by pylons.
Aluminium and copper smelting industry
8
Flood control Control of flooding is carried
out by the dam. By keeping so much water back in
Lake Nasser, the River Nile rarely floods the
surrounding farmland any more.
9
New farmland created The act of keeping back
the water from the River Nile has lowered its
level, effectively creating new farmland by the
river sides. This is also less prone to flooding.
10
Irrigation water for nearby farmland Development
of irrigation channels from Lake Nasser, takes
water from the reservoir to the nearby desert to
make farmland for watering crops. The electricity
pumps the water there.
11
Fish stocks in Lake Nasser Fish live in the
lake and can be fished more easily by those
fishermen who used to fish in the River Nile.
This should improve their livelihoods and fish
stocks can be replaced more easily.
Also creates tourism via game fishing.
12
The Disadvantages of the Aswan DamThere are
many disadvantages caused by the Aswan Dam. These
are shown on the spider diagram below
13
High set-up costs of building the dam Egypt had
to borrow a great deal of money to set this dam
up from the Russians. Egypt will be repaying the
loans back for a very long time and so it is
doubtful whether this will help Egypt to develop
at all
14
Irrigated farmland suffers from salination When
water evaporates in these hot areas, it brings
salts to the soil surface. This is called
salinisation and it is not good for the soils or
the crops. If too much salt rises to the surface,
it can kill the plants and reduce yields.
15
Water-borne diseases increase As the water in
both the reservoir and irrigation channels is
contained and in a lot of places static, this
promotes the build up of water snails which carry
the disease bilharzia. Many other diseases also
increase as they are not 'flushed away' by the
flow of the River Nile.
16
Land lost from flooding of Lake Nasser Although
there were some land gains from the building of
the dam, there were much more losses behind the
dam where the land was flooded to make the
reservoir of Lake Nasser. Many people were moved
and made homeless as well as losing their
farmland.
The temples of Abu Simnel had to be moved.
17
Evaporation from Lake Nasser is very high This
is an extremely hot area of the world.
Evaporation from Lake Nasser is very high as a
consequence and this means a lot of water is lost.
18

• Silt builds up in Lake Nasser
• Silt, that would normally make its way down river
  gets trapped behind the dam, lowering the level
  of the reservoir.
• In addition, this silt would have made its way
  onto farmland and onto the Nile Delta and this
  is now causing farmland to become less fertile
  and the Nile Delta to stop growing.
• Also, Cairo brick makers are suffering as they no
  longer have enough silt deposits to make their
  bricks from.

Mud brick village
19
Natural flooding / silt is lost Flooding is an
important natural event which enables silt to be
placed on farmland, making it more
fertile. Without this flooding, the farmland in
front of the dam is becoming less
fertile. Yields of crops will drop and
eventually people may lose money or starve. In
addition, those who do not have the luxury of an
irrigation channel, will suffer from a lack of
water entirely.