High on Aswan

A vote for Egypt's great dam

Every summer the ancient Egyptians threw a beautiful virgin into the Nile to propitiate the river god. The Nile was Egypt's lifeblood: its waters renewed the parched land, and its sediment enriched the soil. But at times there was too much water, engulfing fields and villages, or too little, bringing famine and death.

In the 1960s, this timeless cycle was broken. With construction of the Aswan High Dam, the largest and most ambitious barrier ever built across the river, the Nile's annual floods were brought under complete control. A 2,000-sq.-mi. reservoir was created, and, through the dam's turbines, enough hydroelectric power was produced to meet half of Egypt's electrical needs. Irrigating canals created a million acres of new farm land.

But the Soviet-aided project also generated megawatts of controversy. Environmentalists charged that the dam would rob the Nile Valley of the silt that had made it fertile. They predicted increased salinity of the land, and warned of a sharp rise in water-borne diseases like schistosomiasis. They also anticipated erosion of the Nile Delta. The great dam became a symbol of Third World development gone awry.

Now, in a surprising reassessment, a team of American and Egyptian scientists sharply disputes this view. Speaking at an environmental conference in Israel, Chief Scientist Khalil Mancy, 52, conceded that the dam has caused severe dislocations.

But he added that with the Aswan liabilities have come new benefits. The collapse of the sardine industry in the Delta, for example, has been balanced by the creation of a rich new fishery in the Aswan reservoir. The Nile's increased salinity turns out to have been exaggerated; the salt level, the scientists found, is up only 10% to 15%, not yet enough to damage most crops. In fact, the greatest threat to water quality is not the dam but the growing pollution from thriving towns and farms along the now peaceable river's shore. As for schistosomiasis, it is on the wane.

The University of Michigan scientist does not deny that some effects may require costly remedies. To halt coastal erosion, dikes will have to be built, and a steadily rising water table may require protection for monuments like the Temple of Karnak. It will be still more difficult to get the 100,000 Nubians displaced by the big lake to adapt to the unfamiliar life of settled farmers on newly arable lands. But even with these problems, Mancy, who first gazed lovingly on the Nile as a youth in Cairo, remains enthusiastic. "Would I build the dam again?" he asks rhetorically. "I would say yes."

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