NEW NILE BARRAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 February 1937, Page 3

NEW NILE BARRAGE

IRRIGATION OF DELTA. , The famous Delta Barrage about twelve niiles north of Cairo is to be supplanted as far as its regulating functions are concerned, by d modern construction, the Mohamed Ali Bar rage, the £2,486,133 contract for which has been given to a British firm, says the “Christian Science Monitor’s” Cairo correspondent. The old structure, which has since 1890 done invaluable service is to be retained as a roadway across the heads of the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile. As early as the end of the eighteenth century the strategic possibilities of this site at the bifurcation of the Nile after its 3000-mile journey from Central Africa were' recognised by those having in view the irrigation of the Delta, Napoleon himself recommending the building of regulators in order to increase or reduce at will the levels in either branch, but it was not until 1861 that the work was finished.

By then the barrage had cost £1,880,000 excluisive of the forced labour which was practised in those days, but the whole work, including fortifications and canal heads, probably cost about £4,000,000. The barrage, however, was practically useless for holding up any large* head of water in order to fill the main canals taking off it.

VAST ACREAGE CONTROLLED. Shortly after the commencement of the British occupation, Anglo-Indian engineers took the work in hand, and by 1890 had made it entirely serviceable at a cost of about £465,000. So good was their work that, with the ! addition of weirs downstream in 1898 at a cost of £450,000, the barrage has functioned admirably, with but one serious mishap, when the head of a main canal collapsed. By its means the whole irrigation system of the Delta, comprising to-day some 3.000.000 acres of rich cotton and rice land, is controlled. As the cotton crop alone in the Egyptian Delta is worth this year about £15,000,000, the money put into the barrage was certainly a good investment. As, however, Egypt has still more than 1,500,000 acres of reclaimable land which now consists of salt wastes or shallow lakes near the sea, the demands on the barrage are, and will be for many years to come, ever increasing. Such demands can be met now by raising the levels in the arterial canals, without, going to the enormous cost of enlarging them, including that of expropriating some of the most valuable land in the country. Such higher canal levels necessitate an increased head, and therefore increased pressure on the barrage, and for this reason, an entirely new structure is required. It will be built down stream of the present barrage, but near which, by holding up about ten feet of water, greatly relieve the pressure on the main structure The work is to be started at once under the direction of F. H. Birkett, who l;as had in his 33 years' service'

with the Indian Irrigation Department much experience in river work, and is scheduled to be completed in three years’ time. Of the total cost of about £2,500.000. steelwork sub-contracts. comprising mainly gates, and worth about £650,000, will benefit directly British firms. Otherwise, practically all the cost, including the purchase of 140,000 tons of cement, will be spent locally.