Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-02-25
EGYPT AND THE GREAT DAM.

EGYPT AND THE GREAT DAM.
The Nile reservoir at Assuan was
opened on Wednesday with as little
display as a town hall or q charity ba-
zaar. We like 1t so. A bar OF Mason
ry is thrown across the Nile and the
Nubian valley is turned into a lake.
That Lnis should seem an incident in
the business Of empire Is as 1t should
be. A great achievement, thus cool
ly viewed, brings us lear to the spirit
of Rome, apparently lost in the sat-
urnalia of Mafeking and Peace days.
The event, as an event, is worthy to
be understood. On the map Egypt is
shown as a great parallelogram. But
this are Is rainless except In the
north, and it is the narrow riband OF
green fields stretching on either side
of the Nile from Assuan to Carlo, that
together with the delta and the Fay
um constitutes the rea Egypt. The
land draws it's supplies Of moisture
not from it's own skies, but from the
skies of Abyssinia, Central Africa,
and being just SO much Of the desert
as can be fertilized by he waters of
its river, Egypt is in literal truth the
'gift of the Nile" To the people of
such a country water Is the para
A1OuAt ACSCSoAty VI 4AAOs anu Va 0A tAN
reforms effected Ly British admins
tration the restoration and extension
of the irrigation works is the most
vital and the most valued. Nineteen
gears ago, when British engineers
! were summoned from India to reform
the Egyptian irrigation service, the
situation vas n which might have
bafiled even resolute and skillful men.
Incompetence. waste, neglect and dis
use had brought the then existing
system of irrigation works and canals
to a condition OF disorder that threat
ened the industrial life of the nation
with paralysis. The English irriga-
ton officers began In q modest way
to clear and repair the canals. On
the strength of their early success they
obtained from the government the
irrigation Million" and then a task
of real magnitude wasl vsnlpletes
Just south of Carlo, at the apex OF
the delta, the Barrage had stood for
twenty-five yearS-a costly failure.
Its purpose was to hold up the Nile,
and so provide a supply of water
sufficient for the perennial irrigation
of the cotton crops then as now the
main source of the national wealth.
Built from the designs of Mougel Bey,
the French engineer, the Barrage had
cost 81, 900, 900, sterling. besides the
unpaid labor of uncounted co-vees
and of whole battalions of soldiers.
But the bad workmanship of the ma
tives had made the structure 81 weak
that it had never held UP more than
five feet nine inches Of water, and
in 1885, when the English engineers
took it in hand, it had been abandon
ed as worthless. Nevertheless, by
1890, after four years of skilled recon-
struction and repairs, the Barrage
was rendered efficient; the perennial
irrigation of lower Egypt was achiev.
ed, the cotton industry was saved,
and the future prosperity OF Egypt
was assured. AS yet, however, the
sugar industry and the peasant prop
critics of upper Egypt, from Carlo for
more Inan five hundred miles south
ward to Assuan, remained dependent
upon the annual overflow of the Nile
for the supply OF the irrigation canals
with water. The canals and the con.
Quits were gradually deepened and
improved, the land was drained, but
before a supply of water sufficient for
perennial irrigation could be obtained
the million of tOns OF surplus water,
which every year the Nile poured
w~astefully in the season of its flood
into the Mediterranean, must be
caught and stored.
1t is this service which the great
dam at Assuan will PERFORM Holding
mp a volume of surplus water OF
more than a thousand million IONS OF
weight, it will pour forth in the sea
son of low Nile q flow of water twice
as great as the volume of the Thames
in its mean annual flood. The As.
suan reservoir, wit hthe auxiliary
"Open Barrage" at Assault Chat fills
the Ibrahimiyeh canal) will o only
provide some 500, 900 acres of land in
upper Egypt-One-third of the agricul.
tural area-with perennial irrigation,
but it will enable fresh land to be
reclaimed from the desert. and SC
enlarge the area Of habitable Egypt.
The price which Egypt pays for this
boon is something under five millions,
distributed In thirty annual payments
of 157,226. sterling, running from July
/, 1903. The cash value Of the new
water supply Is estimated at an a
nual increase of 6 2. 808, 900, sterling,
in the national wealth. and E378,400
in annual revenue; while the state
will gain in addition a bous OF over
q million pounds from the sale OF
lands reclaimed from the desert. II
remains to be seen, of course, wheth-
er these estimates Of the increased
be realized. On the other hand, they
may be exceeded. In n case the
prospect of an immediate increase in
a matter which is worth the notice
1 nf N. voonufoofuropo