The document discusses the River Nile and the Aswan Dam project in Egypt. It provides background on the River Nile, including its source and length. It then describes the construction of the Aswan Dam in the 1950s-1960s to generate hydroelectric power, store water for irrigation, and regulate flooding. The dam created Lake Nasser, one of the world's largest man-made reservoirs. While the dam had benefits, it also caused problems like reduced flooding in river deltas. The Soviet Union provided major financial support for the massive infrastructure project led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
3. What is a Dam??
• A barrier constructed to
hold back water and raise
its level, the resulting
reservoir being used in the
generation of electricity.
4. River Nile
• The River Nile is about 6,670 km (4,160 miles)
in length and is the longest river in Africa and
in the world. Although it is generally
associated with Egypt, only 22% of the Nile’s
course runs through Egypt.
5. Fact-file of River Nile
Continent: Africa
Country it flows Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Burundi and Egypt
through:
length: Approx. 6,695 kilometers
No. of tributaries: 2
Source: Burundi and Central Africa
Mouth: Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea
6. Interesting Facts about the River Nile:
• The Nile River is the longest river in the world.
• The Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
• The largest source of the Nile is Lake Victoria.
• The Nile has a length of about 6,695 kilometers
(4,160 miles).
• The Nile basin is huge and includes parts of
Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo (Kinshasa),
Kenya.
• The name Nile comes from the Greek “neilos”,
which means valley.
7. Aswan Dam
In 1954 the Egyptian government decided to
build a dam at city of Aswan and eventually in
1960 the project of Aswan dam was initiated.
The dam was so large that 17% of the
reservoir was located in Sudan and the rest of
the 83% was in Egypt.
This is the 3rd largest dam of the
world.
8. Purposes/Reasons
• To prevent yearly flooding in the summer.
• To store water for irrigation in the winter.
• It is a multi purpose dam. It is used to produce
Hydro Electric Power.
• To balance the flow of the river.
• So the people could cruise on the river.
9.
10. Sources
The River Nile has two sources.
The first one starts from Zaire which is known
as the “White Nile”.
The second river starts from Ethiopia which is
known as “Blue Nile”.
11.
12. Financial Support
1. SOVEIT UNION GOVT. :
Egypt was quite poor and Sudan was more poorer
than Egypt, that they couldn’t finance themselves.
First American (USA) decided that they would give financial
support to Egypt, as it was a rich country but later they ended
up not helping them. The Egyptians were now in trouble, so
they decided to take help from the Soviet Union Government.
Soviet Union gave financial
support to Egypt for the
Construction of the dam.
13. 2.EGYPTS’s INCOME:
Every year 1/4th of Egypt's total income was being spend on
the construction of the dam.
3.SUEZ CANAL:
The Suez Canal was open for free trade. It passes through
Egypt. Egypt was one of the poorer countries. It soon claimed
that they now owned or nationalized the canal, as they
realized that by this way they could earn a large amount of
money. Anyone who passed through the canal had to pay fee.
14. Negative Aspects
Two of the problems resulting from the
construction of the dam were/are :
Flood water no longer reached the deltas of River
Nile. So the sea water was gradually seeping into the
delta killing the vegetation.
There was no flood water to sweep away the snails
which carried the larvae of the worms. Those worms
cause serious intestinal and urinary disease in
human.
15. In addition, for several years , some of the dam’s
expensive HEP (hydro electro power) turbines were
not used because the country did not require all the
electricity generated.
16. Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second
President of Egypt from 1956 until his death.
The Lake Nasser was named after Gamal Abdel
Nasser.
Born: January 15, 1918, Alexandria
Died: September 28, 1970, Cairo
Presidential term: June 23, 1956 –
September 28, 1970
17. Lake Nasser
• Lake Nasser is a vast reservoir
in the Southern Egypt and
Northern Sudan and it is one of
the largest man-made lakes in
the world. Strictly “Lake Nasser”
refers only to the much larger
portion of the lake that is in the
Egyptian territory (83% of the
total) the lake is almost 550 km
long and 35 km across at its
18. The lake was created as a
result of the Aswan dam
across the waters of the
Nile between 1958 and
1971. the lake is named
after Gamal Abdel Nasser ,
one of the leaders of the
Egyptian revolution of
1952.