Geology -- Egypt; Nile River; Water-supply -- Egypt
To those critics who suggest that the waters of the lake might become
salted or leak into the Fayoum I have to reply as follows: When the old
Lake Mœris, or the present Fayoum, was full of water and 63 metres
higher than the bottom of the Wady Rayan, and remained so for thousands
of years, there was no question of the waters having become salted or
having escaped into the Wady. The Wady was as dry as it is to-day and
the great inland sea was always fresh. If there had been any serious
infiltration from the ancient Lake Mœris into the Wady Rayan, there
would have resulted a lake which could not have escaped the notice of
the numerous travellers who visited the lake. No mention was ever made
of such a lake. This body of water moreover would have been inhabited by
fresh-water animals whose remains would have strewn its shores. No such
remains are to be seen to-day. If therefore the ancient Lake Mœris with
a head of 63 metres on to the Wady Rayan could not leak into the Wady,
it is not likely that the Wady Rayan reservoir with a head of from 27 to
29 metres on the Garak side of the Fayoum will leak into that part of
the area covered by the ancient lake. Any leakage into the Lake Kurun
side is never contemplated by anybody, since many kilometres of compact
limestone lie between the Wady Rayan and it, while about one or two
kilometres of the same limestone lie between the Wady Rayan and the
Garak depression.
34. =Lake Albert reservoir project and project for training the Albert
Nile and the Zeraf River.=--If we wish not only to irrigate the whole of
Egypt, but to include the Sudan in the sphere of operations we must
regulate the supply issuing from Lake Albert Nyanza and ensure its
passage through the great swamp regions. To my mind no work in the Sudd
regions will be of any substantial value unless the Albert reservoir dam
is first built. Tabulating the information collected in the gauges and
discharge tables we may state that the discharge of the Albert Nile in
cubic metres per second between the 15th January and 15th May was as
follows in:--
=1901= =1902= =1903= =1904=
Discharge at Gondokoro 600 600 700 1000
Discharge above Sobat mouth 300 300 350 435
In 1861 the discharge at Gondokoro was as low as 500 cubic metres per
second. It will be seen that, in spite of the great waste, there is an
increase at the northern end of the Sudd region even under present
conditions when the discharge at the south end is increased in the
interval between the 15th January and 15th May. The water which enters
the White Nile during these months represents the summer contingent of
the White Nile to the Nile in Egypt.
Now though an increase in April at the south end of the Sudd region is
felt at the north end, no such increase is felt in September and
October, and the reason has been given in Chapters II and III.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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