The Great Nile Reservoirs,

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 11980, 31 January 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Great Nile Reservoirs,

THE OPENING OF THE ASSOUAN DAM. The opening of the Great Xile dam at Assouan appears to have been a picturesque and interesting ceremony. The scene was graced by the presence of an imposing company of" Royal and official personages, among whom were the Khedive of Egypt and his suite, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, representatives of various Powers, and the leading persons connected ! with the construction of the barrageSir William Garstin, Sir Benjamin Baker, Sir Ernest Cassel, and Sir John Aird. The German Emperor and the King of Italy had been invited, but found it impossible to be present. The official party took their station on a platform, carpeted with scarlet c!»th, on the top of the huge structure, beiween the locks and the riverbank. The general public were drawn up on the bank, on the other side of the I locks. The special correspondent of the London " Standard" thus describes the scene:—-"The white houses are decorated with strings of scarlet flags, and rows of many-coloured lamps, arranged in readiness for the illuminations, are glittering in the brilliant sunshine. Above and below ihe Xile is gay with painted boats, dressed with flags of every conceivable hue, and flitting constantly from bank to bank. On the left, as we go from one extremity of the barrage to the other, the river lies like a tranquil lake, bathed in sunshine, and on the right is the dark, rocky bed. The ruins of Philae (on an island above the daml :;re visible, but they no longer tower on high, but rise direct out of the water. The tops of palm groves can be seen just, above the Xile level, and the roofs of houses that once formed the village of Shellal." After the congratulatory speeches, which the Khedive and his Ministers delivered in French, the Duchess of Connaught laid the final stone—the last stone of the parapet at the western end. Then, after the Duke had thanked the foreign representatives for the financial cooperation of the Powers, the Khedive touched an electric button with a silver key fashioned on the model of the Key of

Ammon-Rn, as depicted on Egyptian monuments. "'lnstantly five of the great sluices opened, and the imprisoned waters burst forth, falling in a thundering cataract of foam on to the rocky riverbed beneath. The irrigation machinery had been at length inaugurated." Finally, the Duke of Con-n-night moved the lever of the hydraulic Tiachinery, and the huge lock gate rolled slowly back into the solid masonry. " A couple of gaily-decorated feluccas, flying the Egyptian flag, at once sailed out into the upper waters breaking, as they emerged, a white ribbon stretched across the lock entrance. In this pretty and simple way the navigation of the Xile. under the new conditions, was auspiciously begun." WHAT IT MEANS TO EGYPT: ("Daily Chronicle" Dec. 10th.)

To tay that Egypt is a land of para-

J doxes and a land of contrasts is to utter ! a truism, but it is a statement which few ! writers en the subject can avoid mak- ! hig. Kerodotus, two thousand years ago and more, said : " I speak at length about J'-gypt because it contains more marvellous things than any other country, things too strange for words"; and the author of " England in Egypt" re-echoes this saving when he remarks that Egypt is- still, "like the Egypt of Herodotus, the chosen home of what is strange, and unexampled and paradoxical.

has been said, as a geographical expression, is two things—the Desert and the Nile; as a habitable country it is only one—the Nile. The Nile is to this land the "lord and giver of life, the source and sustenance of all existence and all civilisation." Egypt, in line, as Herorlo-, tus truly said, is the gift of the Nile. '1 o-day will witness the inauguration of the newly-completed reservoirs, dams and irrigation works at Assouan by H.R.H. ;h3 Duke of Connaught, who will represent King Edward at a ceremony which will ever remain famous in the annals of modern Egypt, and which will be as important in its way as was the opening of the Suez Canal by Ismail Pasha,

The year i:i Egypt io divided into three seasons—summer, flood, and winter. Summer extends from April Ist to the end of July ; flood from August l?t to the end of November, and winter from December Ist to the end of March. The country is watered, not by rain, but by the Nile", which more than compensates for the absence of rain by its regular rise and fall, and by the fertilising matter, acting as the finest manure, which is scattered over the land.

Briefly the object of the great Nile dam is. to create a huge reservoir in which will be stored for use during the months of low Nile a portion of the flood waters, which, instead of running to waste, will be utilised for purposes of irrigation over vast tracts of country. The perennial irrigation of the land will be enormously improved, additional areas will be brought under cultivation, summer culture will be introduced into districts which at present only bear crops in the winter and spring, and the productiveness of a, country whose 'oil, it has been well said, only requires to be tickled with a hoe to laugh with a harvest, will probably be donbled. " The desert lands of Egypt," says Sir Benjamin Baker, " will remain desert, however many millions of pounds are expended in Nile reservoirs. All that man can do is to extend somewhat the narrow strip of green running along the banks of the Nile, and to render that and the other low-lying lands more productive than they are at present, with a scanty supply of water." The great engineer is indeed modest regarding his work, but those who know Egypt will realise to the full what is meant by the extension of that "narrow strip of green," that tiny line of cultivated Egypt. The great Nile reservoir and dam at Assouan, the barrage at Assiout, and the various supplementary works in the way of distributing canals end regulators, will ever remain monuments of British enterprise and engineering skill, and the improvement in the arable condition of the land and in the social life of the Egyptian people which are bound to result will serve to convince even the most rabid of Little Englanders that the English.occupation of Egypt has brought lasting benefits on a nation which, had we withdrawn our influences, as in the opinion of some politicians we should have done, would unquestionably not be in the happy state in which it finds iUelf to-day. As Lorn Milner has put it, the most absurd experiment in human government has been productive of one of the most remarkable harvests of human improvement. Apropos a story is told by a well-known Anglo-Egyptian official of a conversation he once had with a native statesman, honest, but narrow-minded, who avowed himself bitterly opposed to our presence and to our policy. The latter was asked how he thought the cuuntry would get on without the British engineers. His answer was as follows: " You do not suppose that if Great Britain were to retire from Egypt, we should let the engineers go! I myself should be the first to do everything I could to retain them." The fact is that any improvement in his water supply is a thing which goes straight home to the heart of every Egyptian.

It is difficult to convey to the dwellers in our damp island the difficulties of irrigation in a land where the rainfall is of so scanty a nature.as it is in Egypt, or to make thi*:n realise the terribly tedious business of watering the soil by means of the " lifting machines "in rogue. In years when the Nile flood is below the average, or when it fails altogether, as it does occasionally, it has been necessary to enforce stringent regulations concerning the working of these machines in order that every crop should receive a supply of water at regular intervals. The drawing of water from and wells is a costly and tedious business, but it had to be done, for at lea.st four or five waterings are required to raise a summer crop. The British farmer has many troubles, but at any rate he may be thankful that he lives in a land with" an ample rainfall, and that he is not forced to resort to manual

labour to compensate for the absence of the " dew of Heaven" which can only be rightly appreciated in a land like Egypt. The "Xile Barrages will render the old lifting machines obsolete, but they will doubtless linger on in certain localities to remind the traveller of the condition of affairs under the old regime. With the commencement of the Xile flood at the end of July the sluices of

the dams will be opened so that the solid matter, organic and mineral in the waterthat valuable fertiliser known as " Xile mud"—can flow unobstructed through the dam. This fine reddish Hiud is washed clown by the Blue Xile from the volcanic plateaux of Abyssinia and becomes mixed with organic matter from the swamp regions of the White Xile, and it is of more value than any manure could be in the annual renovation of the land. A few months later, when the flood is subsiding and the water becomes clearer, the sluices will be gradually closed until the reservoirs are full. The stored water will be released as required during April, May and June, and will be distributed by means of canals for the use of the agriculturists of Middle and Lower Egypt. After the successful restoration of the old French-built barrage at the apex -of the Delta, the English officiating engineers in Egypt, conscious of the fact that the perennial irrigation of Egypt us a whole was a problem that awaited solution, determined that a survey of the Xile Valley should be carried out, and Mr W. Willcocks, of the Public Works Department in Egypt, was entrusted with the work. Several schemes were laid before the Government for dams between Cairo and Wady Haifa. Mr Willcocks was in favour of the Assouan site, and the majority of the International Committee who visited the si'es in 1894 were of the same opinion. The work was perfectly feasible, but it would cost millions, and it was feared that the scheme would have to be indefinitely postponed. Lord Cromer himself has said that he would never see it carried out in his day. But the difficulties were surmountnble. Contractors were found who would carry out the work for a lump sum, and would demand no payment until the works were completed, and who even suggested that the payment should be spread over 'hirty years." Sir John Aird and Co., to whom the contract was let in February. 1898, with Messrs Bansomes and Rapier, as sub-contractors for the steel works, have completed a largely increased quantity of work hi less than" the contract time "(five , vears), and have given entire satisfaction, I ind it may be noted that they gave no security and asked for none from Great Bri- , tain or from Egypt. [ Sir John Aird and Co. constructed two dams—one. the great dam at Assouan, near . the First Cataract, one and a quarter miles ; Ions; the other, the supplemental dam at . Assiout. 200 miles nearer Cairo, rather more than half a mile in extent. The smaller dnm may be conveniently considered first. Work on the Assiout barrage was commenced in the winter of 1898, and was com- • pleted in the spring of this year. Its

main purpose is to hold up the water so as to supply the old Ibrahimieh Canal and any new canals, and to bring an additional area of 300,000 acres under perennial irrigation. It is situated about a mile to the northward of the town of Assiout. The total length of the structure is 2750 ft, or rather more than half a mile, and ifc includes 111 arched openings of 16ft 4in span, capable of being closed by steel sluice gates 16it in height. The piles and arches are founded upon a platform of masonry 87ft wide and 10ft thick, and they are protected by an ingenious system of piling, which will prevent the possibility of undermining, which actually occurred in the case of the old French barrage. This year the Nile was abnormally low, and the Assiout dam had a chance of proving its utility. It raised the level of the water in the Ibrahimieh Canal fifty inches, and it is not too much to say that it practically saved Middle Egypt. The revenue derived from the benefit already bestowed this year by the dam will go a long way towards defraying its cost. About three-quarters of a mile north of the Assiout barrage is the Ibiahimieh Canal, one of the most important in Egypt, for it supplies the Bahr Yusuf and the Fayuan. Across its head a new regulator had to be constructed.

Tho great reservoir and dam at Assouan (or Aswan, as it is perhaps more, correctly termed) is 600 miles above Cairo. More than forty years ago Sir Samuel Baker proposed a " single dam above the First Cataract at Aswan, at a spot where the river is walled in by granite hills." Mr Willcocks' original design consisted of a group of independent dams, but a single dam. one and a quarter miles in length, was finally decided upon. Like the dam 3 at the Delta and at Assiout the greatAssouan barrage consists of a wall of masonry pierced with sluice openings of sufficient area for the flood discharge of the river, which it has been calculated may nmomit to 15,000 tons of water per second. There are 180 sluice openings, mostly 23ft high by 6ft 6in wide, and subject to heavy pressure when being moved; they are of the roller type, invented by the late Mr F. G. M. Stor.ey. Mr Willcocks has stated tint had it rot been for the Stoney sluices the Assouan dam could not have been constructed.

We have already referred to the solid matter which comes down with the Nile flood, and it will be quite obvious that this invaluable fertilising agent must be allowed an unobstructed passage, which would not be possible with a solid dam across the river. The 180 strong sluices have been made at Ipswich; they are similar in construction to those in use on the Thames at Richmond and on the Clyde at Glasgow. By means of a rolling action •hrstoad of the ordinary sliding action of (he sluice face against its fixed frame, the huge Nile sluices can withstand almost any head of water and can be easily operated by manual labour. Each is 6ft 6Jin wirlc. giving a combined waterway of nearlv 1134 ft. One hundred and forty are 23ft deep, and the remainder lift 6in. The total length of the Assouan Dam is one and a quarter miles, the maximum height, from the foundation is 130 ft; the difference of level of water above and below is 67ft. and the total weight of masonry over one million tons, and the thickness of the dam is nearly 100 ft to the base. Navigation is provided for by a "ladder" of four locks, each 260 ft long by 32ft wide. The five lock-gates are of unique design, and the two upper ones are noteworthy in that- they are the largest single-leaf gates in the world: They will be worked by hydraulic power generated by a. turbine placed in the dam, and are constructed to stand a pressure of over 1740 tons. The masonry of the dam is of local granite, set in British Portland cement mortar.

The maximum number of men employed was 11,000, of whom. 1000 were European masons, and other skilled men. The reservoir will contain over 1000 million tons of water.

Sir Benjamin Baker once remarked in h' lecture that it was easy enough to construct dams or barrages cci papar, but that wherever water was concerned the real difficulty and interest was in the practical execution of the works, for water never

slept, but day and night was .stealthily seeking to frustrate the plans of the engineer. "It would not be too much to say that any practical man standing on the verge of one of the cataract channels, hearing and seeing the apparently irresistible torrents of foaming water thundering down, would regard the putting in of foundations to a depth of 40ft below the bed of the cataract in the short season available each year as an appalling undertaking." Fortunately for the contractors there is only one Nile flood in the year. Between November and July only is under water working possible, and the work was crowded into these months each year. The method of working was to erect temporary dams or " sudds," formed of various materials, and then to pump out and keep the water down by powerful centrifugal pumps.

The acrimonious controversies which raged around the island of Philae are now almost forgotten. At one time the archaeologists were quite certain that the buildings on the island would be drowned for about six months every year. As a matter of fact the island will be slightly flooded for about four months when the reservoir is full, and in order that no harm should come to the ruins all the important parts have been either carried on steel girders or under-pinned down to rock or the present saturation level. The revenue of Egypt depends upon it? irrigation, which is its very life-blood. It is in fact all a question of water, and now

that the dams are finished we may look for an enormous extension of the cultivable area. Large tracts of land will be made to bear crops for the first time; old tracts will be restored to cultivation, whilst those that now bear only one crop will be made in the future to yield two. The agriculture of Egypt will expand; its trade will develop to larger and larger measure, and its industrial future will be assured. Another writer says : —Egypt is the Nile. and the Nile is Egypt. The fact is full of political significance. He who controls the head waters of the Nile is the potential master of Egypt. He who would make Egypt prosperous must bind and measure and disperse the Nile. Agricultural pro-

blems in Egypt are river problems. " What is the news from Assouan?" is the Egyptian form of the questions " what about the

crops ?" " how does the weather look ?" " how is the labour market ?" A low Nile means short commons to thousands ; a very low Nile means starvation. To provide against failure of the flood, to make possible a larger and a more even distribution

of its fertilising gifts, is the purpo.se of the great dam at Assouan and the subsidiary barrage at Assiout. Very impressive must

have been the sight yesterday when the Khedive touched an electric switch and the great waters of the reservoir rushed through the sluices. The flow was symbolical of the stream of prosperity which his Highness hopes by this means to set flowing through his country. Seldom ha<

any public work been carried out which promises so sure, so speedy, and so great a return. The cost of the dam and subsidiary works is in round numbers £3,180,000. Sir William Garstin has estimated that the annual increase in the wealth of the country caused bv them will be £2,600,000. In a single year, that is. the investment will produce nearly cent, per cent, so far as the public wealth is concerned. The direct annual benefit to the State derived from this increased wealth is estimated at £378,000. Should these esti-. mates be realised—and Lord Cromer is not the man to accept unduly sanguine forecasts—the British Administration will be able to congratulate itself on one of the most successful pieces of finance, as well as one of the most considerable engineering works, of which history gives rec.ord. The end of good government has been described as to "make sure to each his own That lie reap where he hath sown." In a very literal sense this ,is the end which the great dam at Assouan is likely to realise.

For cruelly beating and torturing a horse until it screamed and kicked in agony, r man- named Alfred McEwan, in New SontlWales, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment without the option of a fine.