Blue and White Niles

3. Blue and White Niles

4. The Gift of the Nile Ancient Egypt birthplace modern hydraulic engineering Man made reservoirs, canals, flood control and measurement devices Reliance on annual flood of Nile Silt refertilize fields on banks Build up of Nile Delta, farm and fish (phytoplankton, shrimp, sardines…)

5. Nile Delta

6. Transformation Under Mohammed Ali 1830s -manage irrigation to permit more crops -crop rotation: local food; export cotton, sugar -cotton, sugar finance industrialization -British blocked, Egypt raw cotton -his successor indebted, canal debacle -British takeover, drive to control floods

7. Aswan Low Dam -idea to control floods, not stop -regulated release for irrigation -generate hydroelectricity -built to let silt through -farming technology still “primitive” -still occasional huge flood overwhelmed

8. Aswan Low Dam

9. After the Revolution Pro-Western monarchy ousted 1953 Nationalist regime wants modernization Focus High Dam - not moderate annually but control over decades, massive water storage -huge increase in power for industry -reclaimed much more land -major increases agricultural productivity US refused aid, 1957 invasion and destruction 1958 Soviet Union promises assistance

10. Aswan High Dam

11. High Dam – the costs -No more silt - shift to chemicals -brick industry crisis (farmland) -destroy Med. Fisheries -Delta shrinking -water quality declining -soil salination -rising water table -Lake Nasser – silting behind dam turbines often jammed water loss double expected -weather changes, monuments in Upper Egypt -canals drainage – weeds, 80% increase schistosomiasis – incidence, virulence

12. Aswan Temple Paintings

13. Temples of the Philae

14. Abu Simbel

15. Schistosomiasis

16. Advanced