Agriculture -- Egypt; Egypt -- Description and travel
The plan, or project, is to form a huge reservoir in the Wady Rayan,
which will with ease supply the water needed at a cost of about two
million pounds--a large sum of money, but ridiculously small in
comparison with the results. There is, however, a drawback in
connection with this reservoir--a weakness, so to speak, which alone
would render its value questionable, for while in April and May, during
the flood time, its supply would be enormous, it would fall off very
much in June, and furnish but very little in July.
But now in connection therewith we find the truth of the old proverbial
saying, "Co-operation is strength." Alone it would be weak, but if made
now and worked in connection with the Assouan Reservoir it becomes
strong, and the two being tapped in turn as the need arose, the
combination would have tremendous results, one reservoir so helping the
other that sufficient water could be depended upon to keep up a
perennial supply.
To give Sir William Willcocks' words:
Let us now imagine that both reservoirs are full of water, and it is
April 1st. The Wady Rayan Reservoir will be opened on to the Nile and
give all the water needed in that month, while the Assouan Reservoir
will be maintained at its full level. In May the Wady Rayan Reservoir
will give nearly the whole supply, and the Assouan Reservoir will give
a little. In June the Wady Rayan Reservoir will give a small part of
the supply, and the Assouan Reservoir will give the greater part. In
July the Wady Rayan Reservoir will give nothing, and the Assouan
Reservoir will give the whole supply required. Working together in
this harmonious and beautiful manner, these reservoirs, which are the
true complements of each other will easily provide the whole of the
water needed for Egypt.
Now, this raising of the Assouan Dam to the height proposed means an
expenditure of five hundred thousand pounds, and the time for the
completion of this addition and raising of the works two years, at the
end of which period, as we have seen, its power for irrigation will be
doubled; while to make the additional reservoir, and enable it to
discharge its vast extra supply at the cost named, will take three
years; four years will then be required to bring the water to its proper
height--seven years in all; so that in that time full arrangements can
be made for the perennial irrigation of the whole of Egypt.
Huge sums of money these to spend or put into the soil, two millions and
a half sterling; but let us see what there is to be said on the credit
side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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