Transcript Aswan High Dam - Woodford County Schools

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
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?
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.
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
The Advantages of the Aswan Dam
There are many advantages of the Aswan Dam.
These are shown on the spider diagram below :
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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’.
The Disadvantages of the Aswan Dam
There are many disadvantages caused by the Aswan Dam. These are
shown on the spider diagram below:
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.