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NILE RESERVOIRS AND PHILÆ

THE International Technical Commission, appointed by the Egyptian Government to consider the various proposals of the engineers of the Public Works Department for the establishment of reservoirs of unprecedented magnitude for the storage of the flood water of the Nile for summer use, has just finished its three months' investigations. Although the Report has not yet been published, there can be little indiscretion in referring to its contents, as the desire of the Egyptian Government and of the Public Works officers throughout has been for the amplest and most unbiassed discussion of the whole question, so that, in the words of Lord Cromer and of Mr. Garstin, the UnderSecretary of State, the course followed may be the one best calculated to serve the interests of the country,' and that 'what is wanted is that Egypt shall have the best possible reservoir, whether it be in the Wadi Rayyan or in the Nile Valley itself.' Having regard to the position which Great Britain at present holds in relation to Egypt, and to the fact that she has assumed the responsibility in the eyes of Europe for the proper management and development of the resources of that country, any proposal of such far-reaching magnitude as the establishment of reservoirs, and the changing the system of agriculture of vast areas of land in Middle and Lower Egypt deserves the most serious and unprejudiced consideration of all thoughtful people in this country. The essence of the question is not whether Philæ temple may or may not be more or less interfered with during British occupancy, but whether, whilst having due regard to the susceptibilities of European scholars and tourists, Great Britain has made the amelioration of the condition of the hard-working and taxladen labourers of Egypt her first consideration, and has not from timidity or a reluctance to face the opposition of those prepared to fight any British proposal in Egypt, postponed until to-morrow reforms which might have been carried out to-day.

Immediately on completion of the four years' exhaustive study of the reservoir question by Mr. Willcocks, the Director of Reservoirs, and his large staff of engineers, Mr. Garstin, the Under-Secretary of State, summarised the results of these studies in a Report to the Egyptian Government which, from its masterly exposition of essential details and its absolute impartiality, would appear to have been rather

the summing-up of one of her Majesty's judges.than the report of an engineer. In this report Mr. Garstin suggested the appointment of an International Commission to revise his own conclusions and those of the engineers of his department, and as a result Sir Benjamin Baker, K.C.M.G., was appointed British Commissioner; M. A. Boulé, Inspecteur-général des Ponts et Chaussées, French Commissioner; and Signor G. Torrecelli, Professor of Agricultural Engineering, Italian Commissioner. In the course of their investigations the Commissioners inspected the Wadi Rayyan depression adjoining the Fayoum Province, or site of the ancient Lake Moeris, and also the route of the thirty-two-mile long canal to connect the depression with the Nile, and the whole of the Nile Valley itself as far as the second cataract at Wadi Halfa.

Up to the present time the chief interest manifested in this country with regard to the vast works proposed by the representatives of Great Britain in Egypt for the improvement of the condition of the most needy of the large agricultural class in that country has been in connection with the ruins on Philæ Island. In Egypt, on the other hand, one hears perhaps too little of the ruins, as, in the opinion of those interested, the question of one temple more or less dwindles into utter insignificance as compared with the vast material benefits which even the most ignorant of the fellaheen know must result from the establishment of a Nile reservoir. This marked contrast in the views of the two countries no doubt must appear strange to the middle and upper classes of the natives, who are constantly being reminded that England is in Egypt, not for her own benefit, but in the interests of Egypt herself. It is, however, doubtless only a temporary phase of feeling in this country, due to an imperfect knowledge of the circumstances of the case. On first impulse probably ninety-nine out of every hundred cultivated persons would say Philæ must not be touched. On a thorough examination of the facts, however, it is no less probable that the same percentage of persons would endorse the conclusions of the Public Works Department and the majority of the Foreign Commissioners, that some interference with Philæ is an absolute necessity in the interests of Egypt.

To understand the Egyptian way of looking at the question, let us assume, for example, that the London County Council had discovered some cheap and easily-executed plan for clearing the Thames of sewage, annihilating London fogs, and at the same time solving the great problem of agricultural depression throughout the country. Incidental to this scheme, however, there was involved an interference with some picturesquely situated ruins-say Tintern Abbey on the Wye, which the guide-books tell us are, from the beauty of the situation and the elegance of the building, the most romantic Cistercian ruins in Britain.' Should we not deem it very unsympathetic, to say the least, if the American public, instead of congratulating us

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upon the good things in store, called us 'Vandals' and other uncomplimentary names because we ventured to contemplate any interference with ruins which they visited and appreciated so much? This, without exaggeration, is in Egyptian eyes a parallel case to the Nile reservoir and Philæ question, and it is no wonder, therefore, that some disappointment is felt in Egypt at the way in which the latter has hitherto been discussed in England, and the sooner this is set right by dealing with the subject on a broader basis, the better for all parties. All reasonable men—and in no matter is it possible to satisfy faddists—will agree, whether they be artists, archæologists, or engineers, that if a reservoir be absolutely essential to the development of Egypt, and no other practically available site exists than the one involving an interference with Philæ, then all the sacrifice that can be legitimately demanded of Egypt is that the interference shall be the least possible. This is in accordance with the action of Parliament in this country in relation to railways, the construction of which constantly and inevitably involves interference with cherished objects and the destruction of the picturesque. It is in accordance also with the course followed by other nations-notably in the case of the Tiber improvements through Rome, where, to facilitate the discharge of the flood waters, several of the historic bridges have been pulled down and rebuilt with the original stones, but on deeper foundations. The most important and responsible duty of the International Commission, therefore, was first to satisfy themselves that a reservoir of some kind was a necessity; and secondly, if so, whether it could not be placed elsewhere than at Philæ.

The Government engineers submitted four projects to the Commission; but, reading between the lines, it was clear enough that they had little confidence themselves in the practicability or expediency of three out of the four plans, and they expressly threw the final responsibility of rejection upon the Commission. The questions to be considered by the Commission, at the request of the Government, were five in number. (1) The proposal to construct a dam at some point of the Nile between Wadi Halfa and Cairo, and to form a storage reservoir in the valley of the river itself. (2) The proposal to construct a storage reservoir in the Wadi Rayyan depression in the desert. (3) An examination of all the designs, plans, and estimates prepared for the different projects. (4) An opinion as to whether the sanitary condition of the country will be affected in any way by the storage of such a body of water as is now proposed. And (5) A selection from among the different projects which have been submitted for the information of the Egyptian Government. It will be observed that the question of Philæ temple was not referred to the Commission, but, on the contrary, it was expressly stated elsewhere in the Report that 'this was a question for the Government to decide.' Neither was the question of the necessity of a reservoir referred to them; but yet it

was, of course, absolutely impossible for them not to have these two questions ever present in their minds.

As regards the absolute necessity for the construction of a reservoir with the least possible delay, no shadow of doubt was expressed by any member of the Commission. The estimated direct ultimate annual return to the State was over three-quarters of a million sterling, and the increased value of the crops would result annually in a benefit of ten times that amount to the cultivators. Making every allowance for possible errors in the estimating, the margin of profit would still be so enormous that no project could be suggested in any part of the globe which would at all compare, as regards financial results and benefits to the country at large, with that of the Nile reservoirs. This being so, it may reasonably be demanded by sceptical financiers why this mine of wealth has been so long neglected, when even Central Africa is being exploited by all the European Powers. The answer is simple. Until the barrage at the apex of the Delta had been sufficiently strengthened by Sir Colin Scott Moncreiff, and Colonel Western, to enable the whole of the existing summer supply in the Nile to be thrown on the lands, it was useless to augment that supply by the construction of reservoirs. The barrage referred to was built forty years ago by an eminent French engineer, Mougel Bey, but from the reckless rapidity with which he was compelled to carry on the works it was a practical failure until the past two or three years. At present, however, by its means every drop of water at low Nile is thrown upon the lands, and so valuable is the water that the sluice-gates are even caulked with rags to stop the smallest waste. Notwithstanding this, the demand for water by the cultivators is as great as ever, and no means exists for satisfying their wants but by storing up the water which runs uselessly to sea during the flood for use when most required. By the construction of the proposed reservoirs the flow down the Nile when water is of the highest value will be considerably more than doubled, so no detailed calculations are required to show that the direct and indirect returns to Egypt must be enormous, and that the condition of the cultivators will be vastly improved. To illustrate the extent of the change it may be mentioned that Mr. Foster, the InspectorGeneral of Irrigation for Lower Egypt, estimates that in the small province of Giseh alone the area under summer crops will be increased from 5,000 to 60,000 acres, and as the average value of the summer crop is no less than 10l. per acre, there would be a nett increase of over half a million sterling in that little district itself.

It was easy enough, therefore, for the Commissioners to satisfy themselves that they could not evade the difficulty of selecting a reservoir site by saying that no reservoir at all was necessary, and it devolved upon them to consider in full detail each of the four projects prepared by the Government engineers, as well as any others that might

occur to them as a result of their own personal inspection of the Nile Valley. The first project examined by the Commission was Mr. Cope Whitehouse's Wadi Rayyan reservoir, which, as all the world knows, consists in the conversion of a deep depression in the desert, discovered by him, into a vast lake of nearly three hundred square miles area. If the British Commissioner had any views on the question of Nile reservoirs before undertaking the investigation of the problem, he must confess it was in favour of Mr. Cope Whitehouse's brilliant and original suggestion, and it was a matter of regret to him that as the investigation proceeded one difficulty after another appeared, and so the realisation of the scheme was rendered far less easy than he had originally anticipated. Coming fresh from experiences on the Manchester Ship Canal, he knew that nothing was more difficult to estimate than the apparently simple work of an excavated channel for water through doubtful soil; and in the case of the Wadi Rayyan project the depression was so remote from the Nile, and the depth of cutting for the connecting canal was in places so great, that the cost became excessive, due regard being had to the contingencies attaching to the work. The Commissioners were unanimous in the opinion that the Government engineers had largely under-estimated the cost of the Rayyan project; but it was explained to them that the engineers were specially instructed, in cases of doubt, to give the advantage to the project, so that it might not be said that they were biassed against Mr. Cope Whitehouse's scheme. Apart from cost, moreover, the Commissioners were unanimous in the opinion that, even if executed, the Rayyan reservoir would not meet all of the requirements of Egypt, and that certain elements of doubt attached to it as regards the supply of water at critical times and the effects of percolation.

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The second Government project examined by the Commission was that for a dam across the Nile Valley at Gebel Silsila about fifty miles down stream of Philæ. At this point the rock was found to be inferior sandstone with bands of clay, easily acted upon by water, and the Commissioners were unanimous in rejecting the Government project on the grounds of insecurity alone, quite apart from other important objections, such as great depth of water and narrow width of river between the high banks. The only other alternative Government project to that of the Philæ dam was a dam at Kalabsha, about thirty miles above Philæ; and here again, although the quality of the rock was all that could be desired, the depth and width of the river were such as to render the construction of the Government dam, as strengthened and otherwise modified by members of the Commission, absolutely impossible on financial grounds alone, apart from engineering difficulties.

Up to this point the British, French and Italian Commissioners, it will be observed, were in accord in rejecting the Government

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