At Cairo when the Nile commences its annual rise, for the first few days
its tint seems to be green; but the general tone during the inundation
is of a dirty red, of course due to its being thickened with the mud
brought down from the south. During this rising, irrigation can be sent
freely flowing over all cultivated lands, as the river continues about
the level of the banks till the middle of November.
In simple language, irrigation means the turning of desert into richly
fertile producing land. A great deal has been said and done, but
everything points to the fact that, however great and productive a
garden Egypt has been for countless years, it is still almost, as it
were, in its infancy. The erection of that stupendous piece of
engineering, the Assouan Dam, has already had effects that have
surpassed the expectations of its projectors; and writing upon this
subject, Sir William Willcocks, a gentleman whose knowledge of the
position is of the highest value, points out a series of facts that are
almost startling in their suggestions. He draws attention to the fact
that there are still two million acres of excellent land waiting to be
reclaimed after the simple fashion herein described, and then requiring
to be irrigated to the full extent needed--that is to say, perennially.
These are large figures to deal with, but Egypt is a vast country, and
its powers of production almost beyond belief; but everything is bound
up in the one need--water supply; and it is this furnishing of life to
plants, and enabling them to find it latent, as it were, in the
far-spreading plains that are as yet but sand and dust, that is taking
the attention of our great engineers.
Here they find room to exert their powers. It is only a year ago that
we had the inauguration of the first great stride; and now we are told
that the thirsty country asks for more. To fully carry out the
perennial irrigation that shall fertilise the two million acres still
waiting, "the country requires one milliard of cubic metres of water per
five hundred thousand acres"--that is to say, four times that quantity.
At the present time, with the height to which it has been already
erected, the Assouan Dam holds up and supplies one milliard of these
cubic metres of water in all, a sufficiency for five hundred thousand
acres of agricultural and garden land. It is proposed to raise it
twenty-one feet higher, with the result that its holding powers will be
so vastly increased that the supply will be doubled, and hence be
sufficient for another five hundred thousand acres. But even then there
will be a milliard acres still waiting for a supply of water to the
extent of two milliards of cubic metres of water for themselves. Whence
is this supply to come?
The engineers are ready with their answer, and only ask for the capital,
not to float some mad scheme, but to spread bounteously the rich water
which turns, as above said, the desert into fertile land.
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.
Take one point alone. The increase in the cotton crop of Egypt would be
most extensive, and its value enormous. Then there is the land itself.
Here we have so many extra acres, only partially irrigated, but which by
this raising of the supply of water will be changed from partial supply
land into constant--that is, each acre will be enabled to tap the
reservoirs at all times of the year, according to the cultivator's need,
with the consequent rise in value of the land of thirty pounds per
feddan, or acre; and that means, according to Sir William Willcocks, an
increase in the wealth of Egypt to the extent of sixty million pounds.
From one bold stroke! Sixty million pounds for the expenditure of five.
Not bad, this, for the engineers. But still, it is but the beginning
of what may be done in the Khedive's country, for it is full of
suggestions to be carried out by an enterprising people for the making
of the native and those of our own country who are prepared to look far
ahead. The amount of land to be reclaimed is enormous; and what land!
For countless ages the Nile has flowed down, bringing with it its
fertile mud, depositing some by the way, carrying other some out to sea,
to be lost in the depths of the Mediterranean; but still, as time rolled
on, adding to, and raising higher, the huge Delta through which the
various mouths made their way; so that in these lowest portions of Egypt
the depth of rich soil must be enormous.
Here lie the lakes and canals of olden formation, shallowed and choked
with mud, and rendered almost impassable for transit, but only waiting
for the engineers to contrive modern works, the result of survey and
level, feeding canals and the forming of reservoirs to supply irrigation
water for freeing the land of its salt, making easy the navigation of
the district, and simplifying the conveyance of its grain and other
crops.
All this development is awaiting enterprise and capital low down in the
Delta. But the engineers have not stopped near home and the Khedive's
capital; they have cast their eyes afar across that vast extent of
barbarism, the re-conquered Soudan, where, bordering upon the Nile, it
is often "water, water everywhere, and not a drop" for the crops to
drink.
Sir William Garstin has been busy here, surveying and examining what can
be done towards and beyond Khartoum. Here rich tracts of fertile land
are lying on both sides of the Blue Nile, to the extent, roughly
speaking, of some three millions of acres. This land of Upper Egypt is
as rich in its capabilities as that of the Delta; but it has qualities
which the latter does not possess, and is more suitable for the
production of excellent cotton, which can be sown as a flood crop and
reaped in winter, an advantage which the seasons will not permit in
Egypt.
Here, again, then, is an opening for enterprise and capital in the
future, for it must not be forgotten that the Suakin-Berber Railway,
well in progress, opens up this part of the country, one which some of
these days will be brought well in touch with Liverpool and the northern
manufacturing towns, as the cotton-growing capabilities of Upper Egypt
extend.