448 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



completed in the middle of 1902, and throughout August and the 

 early part of September of that year the river levels were unpre- 

 cedently bad, and considerable anxiety prevailed in Upper Egypt 

 regarding the irrigation of the basin lands. In some places the 

 situation became so serious, as the proper time for sowing crops was 

 nearly past, that it was decided to close the new Assiout Barrage 

 on the 15th August. The result was to raise the water level upstream 

 of it some 5 feet, and, by forcing the water into the canals feeding 

 some of the basins, to inundate tracts, the land tax on which would 

 have otherwise been rernitted. Mr. Webb, the Director-General of 

 Reservoirs, stated : " It is very difficult to estimate accurately the 

 money value of the benefits gained during the flood from the 

 construction of this Barrage ; but it may be safely assumed that the 

 direct and indirect gain was not less than ;^E. 600,000 * The cost 

 of the Barrage was ;£E. 720,000. It will therefore be seen that 

 the works practically repaid their cost in the first year after their 

 completion. ' ' 



The problem of providing stored water for Egypt has not, 

 however, been solved by the construction of the Assouan dam. In 

 order to ensure the irrigation of existing perennially irrigated tracts, 

 a quantity of stored water of 70,000 million cubic feet is required. 

 The lowering of the Assouan dam, in deference to the wishes of 

 Archaeologists, reduced the quantity that could be stored from 70,000 

 million cubic feet to 37.500 million cubic feet — a little more than 

 half that originally estimated for. For its full development, Egypt 

 requires 200,000 million cubic feet of stored water, and where all 

 this is to come from is the problem at present. Various proposals 

 for providing extra storage have been made. It is unlikely that a 

 proposal to heighten the existing dam at Assouan would be enter- 

 tained, nor would even this provide for the storage of the desired 

 quantity of water. The old proposal to utilise the Wady Rayan has 

 been mooted. Were Egypt alone in question, it would perhaps be 

 possible to obtain the required quantity of water by building works 

 at the third or fourth cataract in the Soudan. The prosperity of 

 Egypt is now, however, closely allied with that of the Soudan, 

 and such expensive works must in future be designed to benefit the 

 Soudan as well as Egypt. It is, then, probable that the solution 

 will be found eventually by damming the outlet from Victoria 

 Nyanza, so as to raise its level and conserve water in it. This, 

 however, is a problem much too large to be discussed in the present 

 paper. 



While investigations regarding the storage of water were pro- 

 ceeding, it was recognised that the head of water to which the 

 Barrage below Cairo could be safely subjected was insufficient. 

 During the summer, when all the discharge of the Nile must be 

 diverted into canals taking off upstream of the Barrage, the regulat- 

 ing gates are tightly closed and caulked. When, about the end of 

 June the first effects of the flood begins to be felt, the level of water 



* ,€E = Egyptian Pound = £l os. 6d. (approx.). 



