Geology -- Egypt; Nile River; Water-supply -- Egypt
In footnote (2) of page 116 of his Report, Sir William Garstin says that
in the parts of the river where the sudd has been cleared there are
indications that a scour of the bed has set in. Again, on page 55 of the
appendix, he says that the removal of the sudds has caused the levels of
the shallow lakes to fall. All this proves that if the spills and
escapes from the Albert Nile were closed with ambatch, as proposed by
Sir William Garstin on page 175, and a few dredgers put into the Albert
Nile and the Zeraf river the expenditure of a sum of money very moderate
indeed compared with £5,500,000 would in all probability result in the
two rivers being so widened and deepened that they could carry the full
summer supply of the lakes, and so there would be a resulting economy of
over £4,500,000 in the new channel from Bor which, when it began
working, might introduce on an aggravated scale all the difficulties of
to-day in the Albert Nile.
A good description of certain spills is given on page 112 of the Report,
a good idea of scour in Plate XXIX., opposite page 110, while on page
181 Sir William Garstin makes the remark that the experience of American
engineers has taught us that though in theory it may be possible to
shorten or straighten a great river, in actual practice it is
accompanied with almost insurmountable difficulties. If the new channel
were dug and set working, in a few years it might be as crooked as the
Albert Nile itself, unless it were protected with stone along its entire
length.
In my project for deepening and widening both the Albert Nile and the
Zeraf river to enable them to carry 600 cubic metres per second, I think
I have given very solid reasons against abandoning the Albert Nile and
sending the whole supply down the Zeraf river at a cost of £3,400,000.
I cannot but think that Sir William Garstin’s recent objections to the
Albert Nile are founded on an oversight. He has, apparently, not kept
the flood discharges of the Albert Nile at Gondokoro and above the Sobat
mouth sufficiently apart from those of low supply. It is the Sobat
flood, combined with the poor carrying capacity of the White Nile, which
is the disturbing factor, and not any inherent viciousness in the
Albert Nile itself. The Albert Nile has a good section, and, if it were
trained in conjunction with the Zeraf river, would, I feel confident,
discharge all the water required with a very moderate expenditure of
money. This, I always understood, was Sir William’s own opinion. In such
projects it is wise to remember Horace’s saying, “Naturam furcâ expellas
tamenusque recurrit.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account