the country, as well as the negative economic effects and the fact that many
of the goals that had been pursued had not been achieved. The most critical
consequences of the construction of the High Dam are as follows.
Sedimentation of Nile silt in the storage lake According to Hamdan (1981:
984) experts were not right when they expected Nile silt to be deposited in
front of the dam; neither are the deposits evenly distributed all over the lake
area. Sedimentation is in fact taking place in the southern third of the lake,
where the velocity of the flow of the silt-laden flood is drastically reduced.
This has already led to the gradual formation of a new delta. In 1996 Hamdy
El-Tahir, President of the General Corporation of the High Dam, warned
(Al-Mahdi 2000: 33): ‘ … the deposited silt may build a delta in the south.
The Nile can divert its course to the West into the desert. This can lead to
a disaster.’ It means that the hydrologists’ calculations, according to which
the provision of an extra storage capacity of 30 billion m3
 would solve the
problem of siltation for the next 300 years, are of little relevance. Egypt is
confronted with a serious danger which threatens the lives of its entire popu-
lation of 70 million people. Plans for the construction of a 500-km-long canal
from the southern end of the lake to Aswan for diverting the silt-laden Nile
water are neither technically feasible nor economically viable.