EGYPTIAN IRRIGATION. COMMENCEMENT OF AN IMPORTANT WORK.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 37, 14 February 1899, Page 5

EGYPTIAN IRRIGATION. COMMENCEMENT OF AN IMPORTANT WORK.

[press association.] Cairo, 13th February. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught has laid the foundation-stone of the Assouan dam, by means of which the level of the Nile will be ultimately raised for a distance of 140 miles. [The construction of great reservoirs in the Nile to regulate the supply of water to Lower Egypt- -the prosperity of which now depends upon the annual natural inundations — has long been contemplated, and a year ago the Egyptian Government entered into a contract with Messrs. John Aird & Co. to carry out the works. One dam is to be constructed at Assiout, abont 200 miles south of Cairo, and the other at Assouan, the position of the First Cataract, some 420 miles from the capital. The works are to be completed in 1903, and the contractors agree to accept payment by annual instalments of £160,000, beginning on the completion of the dams and extending over 30 years — about £4,800,000 in deterred payments. The Assouan dam is to be built on the granite reefs 6i the Cataract, and to consist of granite ashlar. It will be 76ft above the river bed, the approximate length will be 6000 ft, and the amount of water to be stored 1,065,000 cubic metres. The Assiout dam is intended for raising the level of the river during the summer for the benefit of Middle Egypt and the Fayuni. Both dams will be provided with navigation locks, and the regulation will be by means of sluices. Sir Benjamin Baker is the chief engineer of the scheme, which is' calculated to provide employment for at least 10,000 natives. One danger which the Assouan work was expeoted to entail was the covering of the famous ruins of the Temple of Isis on the island of Philce, situated in the river just above the cataract, but this risk is considered to have been avoided.]