Aswan city houses the two major key dams in Egypt on everlasting the Nile River, the English dam and the high dam.
The Aswan low dam was built between 1898 and 1902 during the time of the English occupation in Egypt and it was not sufficient to control the annual Nile flooding or store sufficient water for long term use and the limited capacity to generate power.
The other big Dam is the massive construction that located 6.5 km south of the old Aswan Dam, also know the High dam Aswan.
The high Dam Aswan was built during the time of President Nasser, it was constructed between 1960 and 1971. This Dam was the permanent solution for flooding control irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. A corporation between Egypt and the Soviet Union.
Egypt didn’t have the fund for such big project, so Nasser asked for an international support, and he asked the world bank to finance and supervise the project. The US and Britan where very interested on this project however some political tensions arose as the US pressured Egypt to join the Baghdad’s pact, a western military alliance during the cold war,
Nasser refused, prioritizing Arab Unity and independence.
In 1956 Britain and the US withdrew their financial support citing economic concerns, but also as a political move to pressure Nasser.
In response Nasser boldly nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, using its revenue to fund the project.
This act asserted Egypt sovereignty and triggered the Suez crisis where Britian, France and Israel launched a military intervention.
Despite the conflict, Egypt managed to maintain control of the Suez Canal.
After losing the western support Nasser turned to the Soviet Union, which provided financial and technical support.
This moves solidified Egypt alignment with the eastern bloc during the cold war.
The construction was completed in 1970, symbolized Egypt independence, modernization and Nasser’s vision for strong, self-reliant nation.
The dam is 111 m high, 980 m wide at the base, 3600 m long.
It created Nasser’s Lake, the largest artificial lake the world extends 500 km all the way to the Sudanese borders, forming a massive reservoir to protect Egypt from the danger of the famine.
Controls the annual flooding and creates a new agriculture system as we have 3 crop cycles today instead of one crop Sycle before.
Used to cover 60 % of the power in Egypt, today probably less than 20% due to the growing population of Egypt.
Some problems took place after building the dam that today we use more artificial fertilization instead of the natural mud and nutrients used to come with flowing river before.
