So it is not amazing that in the areas of Sohag, Qena and Asyut, bilharzia
increased after the method of irrigation of 336,000 ha of agricultural land
there was converted from basin irrigation to permanent irrigation after the
construction of the Sadd el-Ali. Bilharzia can be combated, if the fellaheen
protect themselves against it. That solution is, however, merely theoretical and
can never be of any practical relevance unless their way of life changed and
became more urban. (CAPMAS 1987: 90)
Since they are aware that most of the methods suggested for avoiding infection
with bilharzia are hardly practicable for the fellaheen, the health authorities
sometimes put insecticides, mainly copper sulphate, in the Nile water to kill
the snails so as to interrupt the infestation cycle. For the Egyptian people this
entails another health hazard. For the method to work, the chemicals would
have to be applied countrywide in the Nile as well as in the canals. This is
impossible,