THE NILE WATERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 64, 13 September 1939, Page 17

THE NILE WATERS

EGYPT SEEKS A SUBSTITUTE

A survey, of the possibility of - providing Egypt with a substitute volume of water should it ever be deprived of the flood-waters of the Blue -Nile River is being speeded up by order \pf the Egyptian Government. , The-rea-son is the present Italo-British tension, says a message from Cairo, to the r "Chicago Tribune-."' • '_■..;. ...;;;.:;

The source of the BHte Ni'le:is Lake Tsana in Ethiopia, Its significance is dual; it irrigates the grea,t cotton lands of Gezira, in the south-eastern Sudan, and, when swollen by % its tributaries, it precipitates, together "with the White Nile, which it joins at Khartoum, the annual Nile flood in Egypt.

The erratic annual level of the flood and the need for controlling high floods render it imperative for Egypt and the Sudan to maintain control Of the Nile waters.

"The Nile is Egypt and Egypt is the Nile" is an axiom of the land of the Pharaohs, >for without it there would be nothing to distinguish it -from - the - Sahara, and all that ancient civilisation which archaeologists are- taking such pains to bring to light would never have existed. •

'These considerations, give enormous potential importance to the survey being conducted by the Egyptian Government. If the project emerges as envisaged it will involve thy construction of a tremendous dam at.the northern end-, of Lake Albert in northwestern Uganda and the-raising of the . lake's water level to. twenty-seven feet, thus vastly enhancing its holding capacity.

Also projected as part of the scheme 'is the canalising of the great, Sudd marshes with, the consequent saving of tremendous water resources at.present, going to waste. ■;., . ,' ' .; As a .resultl of these plans Egypt would be assured of a volume'of waters which, \ controlled 'and regulated by j means of dams constructed between. Lake Albert and the Mediterranean. largely would replace the flood-waters of the Nile should the sources of: tha Blue Nile be ; blocked.

While all quarters 'in Egypt and the Sudan are unanimous as to the essential need of 'taking every possible measure to safeguard the flow of the Nile, certain advisers of the Egyptian Government are less concerned, about the dangers of Italian .interference with Lake Tsana. TKey point out that only* a small proportion of the Nile water comes from the lake itself, while after it leaves Tsana the Blue Nile at once enters a region of precipitous ravines that make diversion v almost '. impo9> sible.