Paris (AFP)

On January 15, 1971, the Aswan High Dam on the Nile, a pharaonic project of Nasserite Egypt built with the help of the Soviets, was inaugurated, making it possible to increase its energy resources and extend its irrigated areas.

But the book has sparked heated debate.

Its detractors accuse it in particular of having reduced the fertilizing silt downstream and reduced the surface of the Nile delta eaten away by the Mediterranean.

And above all, it caused a significant transfer of the Nubian population, whose lands were largely submerged by the waters of Lake Nasser, upstream of the dam.

- A Nasserian dream -

Since taking the reins of power in 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser dreams of erecting a dam on the Nile to increase the area of ​​cultivable land by 30%.

A first draft agreement was signed with the United States at the end of 1955. The United Kingdom promised to be a party.

But Nasser's hostility to the "Baghdad Pact", a regional alliance spearheaded by Washington and London which aims to stem Moscow's influence in the region, notably led the United States to withdraw from the project in July 1956.

A few days later, Nasser, herald of pan-Arabism and the non-aligned movement, retaliated by announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal.

This will lead three months later to the Anglo-Franco-Israeli attack on Egypt, which will turn into a fiasco.

- "Symbol of friendship" with the USSR -

In the meantime, Russia offered to finance the dam and on January 9, 1960, Nasser started the construction work.

On May 14, 1964, the "raïs" and the Soviet leader Nikita Khrouchtchev attended the filling of the High Dam.

Nasser pays homage to the USSR, to its engineers and workers who collaborated in the construction of the dam "lasting symbol of friendship" between the two countries.

- Transfer of the Nubians -

However, the project threatens the treasures of ancient Nubia, dividing its territory between present-day Egypt and Sudan, and whose borders stretched along the Nile.

Twenty-four Pharaonic and Greco-Roman temples and chapels are in danger of being swallowed up since the implementation of the project must result in the formation of a huge artificial lake, Lake Nasser.

Unesco then coordinates the largest archaeological rescue in history.

About twenty gigantic monuments were dismantled and rebuilt under cover of water, including the famous temples of Abu Simbel.

The lands of ancient Nubia are however largely submerged by water and a significant part of the population is forced to leave the fertile banks of the Nile for the arid countryside of the South or the big cities.

- "Taming the waters of the Nile" -

On January 15, 1971, three months after Nasser's death, his successor Anouar al-Sadat, accompanied by the President of the Supreme Soviet Nikolai Podgorny, inaugurated the structure and visited the gigantic hydroelectric power station.

The Soviet president quotes the "raïs", for which this construction was "the realization of the dreams of the Egyptian people to tame the waters of the Nile".

Sadat pays homage to the USSR for its political and economic support.

The High Dam can retain more than 160 billion m3 of water per year in Lake Nasser.

The twelve turbines installed on the dam produce ten billion kilowatts of electricity.

For eleven years, 36,000 Egyptian workers and more than 2,000 Soviet experts took turns on the construction sites.

The USSR will have financed 40% of it while the rest was paid by Egypt in cotton, in the form of barter.

© 2021 AFP