The High Dam

Dream Come True

The Aswan High Dam, or High Dam, is a dam built on the Nile in southern Egypt, built during the reign of Gamal Abdel Nasser, which the Soviets helped to build. The dam was designed to control water flow, mitigate the effects of the Nile flood and generate electricity.

The location of the High Dam

The High Dam

The length of the dam is 3,850 meters, the width of the base is 980 meters, the width of the summit is 40 meters, and the height is 111 meters. The volume of the dam's body is 43 million cubic meters of cement, iron and other materials, and a water flow of up to 11,000 cubic meters of water can pass through the dam.

Construction of the dam began in 1960 and the total cost was estimated at one billion dollars, one third of which was borne by the Soviet Union. The dam was built by 400 Soviet experts and was completed in 1968. The last 12 generators were installed in 1970 and the dam was officially opened in 1971.

1- History of The Dam

The Egyptians realized the importance of the Nile since the earliest ages, and established annual water storage projects such as Aswan Low Dam and Jebel Aulia Dam on the Nile to control the changing river revenues. Barrages were also erected on the Nile to regulate irrigation on various river traps.

Map of annual storage projects on The Nile

However, annual storage was only a partial remedy for controlling the Nile. Revenue from the river varies greatly from year to year. It could reach about 151 billion cubic meters or fall to 42 billion cubic meters annually. This large disparity from year to year makes dependence on annual storage extremely dangerous as it can expose agricultural land to damage in low-income years.

Image of Nile flood in 1946

So the thinking was to create a huge dam on the Nile to store water in high-income years for use in low-income years. The High Dam was established as the first continuous storage project at the level of the Nile Basin to be implemented within Egypt's borders.

The project was implemented according to the following steps:

Aswan High Dam construction 1964

  • Engineer Adrian Daninos advanced to lead the revolution of July 23, 1952 with a project to build a huge dam at Aswan to reserve the flood of the Nile and to store its water and generate electricity from it.
  • The studies began on 18 October 1952 by the Ministry of Public Works (currently the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources), the Army Corps of Engineers and a group of university professors.
  • In December 1954, the design of the dam was approved and the specifications and conditions of implementation were approved. Egypt requested the World Bank to finance the project.
  • In December 1955, the World Bank made an offer of aid equal to a quarter of the cost of constructing the dam, but withdrew its offer on 19 July 1956 due to colonial pressures.

Egyptian-Soviet friendship symbol in Aswan

  • On 27/12/1958 an agreement was signed between Russia (former Soviet Union) and Egypt to lend Egypt 400 million rubles for the implementation of the first phase of the dam.
  • In December 1959, a water distribution agreement was signed between Egypt and Sudan.
  • Work on the first phase of the dam started on January 9, 1960 and included digging of the diversion channel and tunnels and lining them with reinforced concrete, pouring the foundations of the power station and building the dam up to 130 meters.
  • On 27 August 1960 a second agreement was signed with Russia (former Soviet Union) to lend Egypt an additional 500 million rubles to finance the second phase of the dam.
  • In mid-May 1964, the river water was diverted to the diversion channel and tunnels, the Nile was closed and the water storage started in the lake.
  • In the second phase, the construction of the dam's body was completed to the end and the construction of the power station and the installation and operation of the turbines were completed with the construction of transformer stations and transmission lines.
    • The first spark started from the High Dam power plant in October 1967
    • Full water storage in front of the High Dam began in 1968
    • In mid-July 1970 the project was completed.

2- Components of The High Dam

The body of The Dam: It is a cumulative dam at the height of 3830 meters of which 520 meters between the two banks of the Nile.

Diversion Channel: Located on the eastern side of the Nile River, it passes water from the front of the dam to the rear, consisting of a front channel and a back channel.

Tunnels: The six tunnels lined with concrete, which connect the front channel to the back channel of the conversion channel.

The power station: It is located on the east bank of the Nile at the tunnel exits and produces electricity of up to 10 billion kWh per year.

Image of High Dam Power Station Turbines

Storage Lake: The reservoir water in front of the dam will be a huge artificial lake with a length of 500 kilometers and an average width of 12 kilometers covering the entire Egyptian Nuba and part of the Sudanese Nuba. The High Dam is designed to have a maximum water level of 183 meters in front of which the lake has a storage capacity of 169 billion cubic meters. Lake Nasser is the largest artificial lake in the world

The Toshka Spillway Channel: The spillway was established at the end of 1981 to protect the country from the dangers of high floods. It is located 2 kilometers west of the dam and allows 200 million cubic meters per day to pass. Where it was implemented to drain the lake water if its level rose from the maximum level of storage to a low located in the Western Desert south of the High Dam by about 250 km. It is a low Toshka.

Map of Nasser Lake and Toshka Spillway

3- Positive effects of the dam

Protecting Egypt from flood and drought hazards

The High Dam succeeded in protecting Egypt from the devastating consequences of high floods, from the droughts and famines caused by the scarce floods, for example: Protecting the country from the dangers of high floods such as the devastating flood of 1964, the most serious flooding of 1975 and 1996, 1998 and 2002. Egypt was exposed to the risk of drought over 9 years, 1978 to 1987, during which 90 billion cubic meters of the dam's water reserves in Lake Nasser were withdrawn.

Flooding of Nile

Development of the agricultural sector in Egypt

The High Dam worked to increase Egypt's share of the Nile water, which has become 55.5 billion cubic meters annually, which contributed to increase the area of agricultural land by about 1.2 million acres, from 5.5 to 7.9 million acres. He also worked to achieve vertical expansion as a result of saving water, which allowed three agricultural cycles each year, and the expansion of the cultivation of crops that need large quantities of water for irrigation, such as rice, the cultivated area to 700 thousand acres annually, and the cultivation of sugar cane. He also worked on the organization of irrigation, which led to the conversion of areas that were cultivated irrigation system basin, which is 970 thousand acres, to the irrigation system permanent.

The High Dam Power Station

Saving electricity

Over the first 10 years of its construction, the High Dam Power Station provided Egypt with about 60% of its electricity needs with a total capacity of 2,100 MW, and the volume of electricity production was 8153 million kWh of the total power generated for Egypt, which amounted to 15012. In addition to its role in ensuring the regular full operation of the Aswan reservoir station by providing a constant level throughout the year. This energy has contributed to the industrial development witnessed by the country after the implementation of the dam project, and has played an active role in social development after the implementation of the rural electrification project.

4- Negative effects of the dam

The sinking of Nubia

Lake Nasser flooded many Nubian villages in Egypt and northern Sudan, which led to the deportation of its people, the so-called Nubian Migration, and sank the land of Nubia and its monuments.

The full story of the displacement of Nubians

Moving Abu Simbel Temple 1964

The land of Nubia and its ancient monuments sank, making it necessary to move them in order to preserve them from drowning. The organization responded and set up a conference on saving the monuments of the Nubia region and the organization asked the world to help in that huge project. The monuments were transferred, the most important of which was the transfer of the temples of Abu Simbel, which was one of the most difficult transfers of buildings in history.

Depriving the Nile Valley of the flood silt

The High Dam has been confined to the flooding mud that feeds the Nile Valley soil in Lake Nasser, which has lost much of its fertility and reduced its productivity. This has led to increased demand for agricultural fertilizers. The shortage of silt has led to an increase in erosion the shore of the Nile Delta Coast in Egypt.

Increased erosion around bases of river structures

The most important of these facilities are bridges and arches, many of which were constructed along the riverbed from Aswan to the downstream in Damietta and Rashid.

Lake Naser

Loss of large amount of Lake Nasser water due to evaporation

The reason is that the surface of the water in Lake Nasser with its large area of the sun is exposed in a very hot climate in addition to the emergence and spread of some plants in the region and adapt to new conditions and contribute to the transpiration process and thus achieve more loss of water

The High Dam is the greatest project of the twentieth century

Panorama of Aswan High Dam

The International Association of Great Dams and Reservoirs (ICSU) has issued a report indicating that the high evaluation of the High Dam has exceeded all other architectural projects. Having been selected by the authority as one of the 10 greatest engineering mega projects in the world and he was selected as the best infrastructure project in the world in the 20th century., it crossed all other mega projects such as Hong Kong's Chuck Lab Cole Airport and the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France. The report pointed out that the dam exceeded 122 projects in the world, where that the High Dam is the greatest project in the twentieth century because of the benefit to the human race as it affects the broad economy and I have no harm to the surrounding environment.

The High Dam is a Tale of a nation

Rare coins printed for the establishment of the High Dam

Some skeptics believed the High Dam could not be built. and others said should not be built. After a decade of toil by Egyptians and Russians in the heat and desolation of upper Egypt, The construction of the High Dam was completed, Fully operational. The High Dam, which has been in existence for 48 years since its opening in mid-January 1971, has become a testament to the "struggle of the Egyptians", who faced difficulties, to walk in the paths of development and prosperity. The High Dam is The miracle of Egypt an epic involving 20,000 workers and its stones are enough to build 14 pyramids to become one of the pillars of the Egyptian economy

I Hope this read has imparted some helpful answers about The High Dam story. To more Information follow These links....

Aswan High Dam construction 1964

Egyptian-Soviet friendship symbol in Aswan

The High Dam Power Station

Moving Abu Simbel Temple 1964

Lake Naser

Panorama of Aswan High Dam

Rare coins printed for the establishment of the High Dam