Assembled by Mr. N.

690km south from Cairo the capital city of Egypt. The Aswan High Dam holds back Lake Nasser which stretches over the border into Sudan. The Aswan High Dam was built on the River Nile which flows northwards through Egypt to its delta on the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile floodplain and the delta used to be the only fertile areas in Egypt. The rest of the country was desert. The Aswan Dam allowed this to change.

It was completed in 1971 with money and advice from the Soviet Union. It is 111m high, 3,800m wide and is the world's biggest dam, having 180 watergates and 12 HEP units supplying 2.1million kw of electric power. Chemical fertilizer and steel works were built to use some of this power creating industrial work. Furthermore all year round irrigation of the surrounding land has been done utilizing water of Lake Nasser generated by this dam, turning the vast desert area around the dam into cultivated land.

• all year round irrigation
• no more flooding
• no more drought
• reliable clean water supply
• extended area of farming
• plenty of electricity
• can start industry to make jobs
• new fishing industry in lake
• can irrigate the desert
• can grow more food to feed a growing population
• cash crops can be grown

• only rich farmers benefit
• silt is no longer deposited on fields
• farmers must buy expensive fertiliser
• farmers need pumps.
• the irrigation channels get blocked with weeds
• farmers get bilharzia disease from snails in weeds
• the lake is getting blocked with silt
• a lot of water evaporates
• the mud brick industry has collapsed - no more silt
• the sardines fish have reduced near the Nile delta - the used to feed on silt nutrients.
• the old ways were better? It cost  a lot of money causing  Egypt debt problems.