New Life from the Nile

Like some pharaoh of a technocratic dynasty, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat last week celebrated the completion of a project 17 times larger than Cheops' Pyramid at Giza. Grasping a pair of ceremonial shears, Sadat snipped a bright green ribbon to dedicate El Sadd El AH, the Aswan High Dam on the Upper Nile. As he did, a band played, young girls released flocks of doves, and Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny spoke one word of Arabic: "Mabrouk [Congratulations]."

But for a rash U.S. decision, Richard Nixon might have been on the platform instead of Podgorny. When the darn was being planned in 1956, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser won pledges of $268 million in assistance from the World Bank, the U.S. and Britain. But when Nasser began talking about seeking funds from Moscow too, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles decided to punish him by revoking Washington's pledge. Britain and the World Bank thereupon also reneged. Moscow moved in with a flourish, eventually lending Cairo $554 million of the dam's $800 million cost. The Russians also supplied 2,000 technicians to work with 35,000 Egyptian laborers (200 of whom died during construction) and equipment to move 10 million loads of earth.

Power and Water. Aswan was actually finished last summer, ten years after work began. Nasser planned to hold the dedication last July 23 to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the revolution that brought him to power. But negotiations over a proposed Middle East cease-fire forced him to put it off, and he died before he could see his grandest project dedicated.

Already Aswan's twelve humming turbines are producing more than half the country's total power, including all the electricity consumed in Cairo, 560 miles to the north. The dam will control floods and irrigate 1,300,000 acres of heretofore arid land. Until now, Egyptians have been able to farm only 4% of their land; the dam will enable them to reach out from the narrow ribbon of greenery along the Nile to which they have been confined for thousands of years. It will also permit farmers to grow many double and triple crops.

Silt and Snails. The dam and the 350-mile-long Lake Nasser behind it are also creating ecological problems. The rich alluvial silt that once flowed downriver and spilled over onto farm lands is being impounded behind the dam, forcing Delta farmers to buy synthetic fertilizers.

Bilharzia, a parasite carried by water snails, has crept into Lake Nasser and the irrigation canals, infecting countless Egyptians. Salt washed out of previously unirrigated land has been carried downstream to increase the saline content of the eastern Mediterranean and threaten sea life.

Missiles and Balloons. On balance, Aswan should prove a tremendous boon to Egypt's 34 million people. To protect it, batteries of SA3 missiles and Soviet-built ZSU-234 antiaircraft guns bristle in the rust-colored sand and rock ringing the dam's foaming gorge. Every night barrage balloons are winched up for added cover against Israeli bombers.

In a way, El Sadd El Ali has underscored how desperately Egypt requires even more development. In the decade needed to build the dam, nearly 10 million Egyptians were born--more than enough to fill all the jobs that will be created by Aswan's throbbing turbines and precious water.

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