Before the building of the Aswan High Dam, Egypt experienced annual floods from the Nile River which deposited 4 million tons of nutrient-rich sediment, thus enabling agricultural production. This process was curbed after a dam at Aswan was built in 1889. This dam proved insufficient and was subsequently raised in 1912 and 1933. In 1946, the water level reached dangerously to the top.
So in 1952, the interim Revolutionary Council government of Egypt decided to build a High Dam at Aswan, about four miles upstream of the old dam. Apart from controlling the annual floods on the Nile River, it also prevents the damage which used to occur along the floodplain.
The Aswan High Dam is responsible for providing about a half of Egypt's power supply. However, the sediments of the Nile have been filling the reservoir, consecutively decreasing its storage capacity and compelling farmers to use millions of tons of artificial fertilizers as a substitute for the nutrients which no longer fill the flood plain. Further downstream, the Nile delta is shrinking due to the lack of additional agglomeration of sediment. Poor drainage of the newly irrigated lands has led to saturation and increased salinity and to top it the parasitic disease schistosomiasis has been associated with the stagnant water of the fields and the reservoir. Yet despite all these factors, the Aswan High Dam is Egypt's lifeline. About 95% of Egypt's population lives within twelve miles from the river.
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