Saturday, April 17, 2010

Aswan High Dam Special : The Builders Of The Dam

The dam was something else ,it was for all people while Toshka which I visited with President Mubarak did not leave a memory in me as there you find prince X and prince Y there
Abdel Rahman el-Abnoudy
Dream TV 2's 10 PM show
17th January 2010
When people speak about the Aswan high dam whether as fans or as haters they usually forget very important thing : Its builders , the builders of the high dam. Sometimes if not all of the time I feel those great men who spent 10 years from their lives in a very harsh environment have been neglected in a way that they do not deserve.
When was the last time you find the media speak about them ?? The only thing you can find featured rarely is that association formed by the engineers who designed and constructed this huge building ; and even this society is being treated by the state as a nasty love child who does not have the same status like other societies and associations in Egypt.
The high dam is not Nasser or Sadat but rather those 25,000 men and their families who built it. The pro-Aswan dam fan club  forgets them and usually focuses on Nasser as if he was the one that designed, constructed and built it alone where as the against Aswan dam fan club usually do not respect the effort of these great men. The current regime does not recognize them either , it is not the Nasser regime that understood their importance nor Sadat regime that respected their effort. My dear friends from several weeks ago I found news that the current government has cut off electricity and water access from the high dam colony which was originally built for the construction workers and their families who settled down in Aswan from all over the country for 50 years now. The government wants their land too to sell just like the Nubians land !!
When I knew that it was the jubilee year of  the high dam construction works commence, I started to search in photos , in videos and in old archives to see or rather to understand why the High dam was considered a national project and why its builders are being called the builders of the dam in the same way like we call their grand ancestors the builders of the pyramids.
The builders of the dam were from all over Egypt , from her different ethnics, backgrounds and social classes, they were from different ages and religions united by the identity and a dream I doubt they imagined its result would be like that despite the fact that the engineers who designed and constructed it insist that they built something strong that will stand against wars, earthquakes and most important time.
The idea of the high Dam came from Egyptian Greek Adrian Daninos1 while the chief engineer is William Shnouda and his student is former minister Hasab Allah El-Kafrawy .  All these men along with other were trying to achieve what it seemed to be the impossible not for money nor for personal glory but for a nation. Speaking about personal glory and also at the time we find everyday new scandals in Toshka I would like to introduce to you our late prime minister Sedky Soliman , yes we had a prime minister in Egypt called Sedky Soliman2 who is known more in his role of constructing the high dam than heading the Egyptian cabinet for less than a year. Soliman was the man responsible for the high dam and he seemed to take this responsibility  seriously in front of God not in front of Nasser or the world. He was the minister of the high dam in several cabinets yet he was most of the time at the field working with engineers and workers in a complete devotion our current ministers would be ashamed of !!
The dam for its builders I believe was more like a challenge and I felt this when I heard one of its builders describing how they felt when the first time electricity was produced there , it was in July 1967 right after the humiliating defeat of six days war and when this small light bulb flickered and then brightened the whole space with its white light , it was like a new dune , a new hope for all these men. No one else in this country saw that light bulb which then was nothing for the grieving families but for those men who transferred a whole mountain to tamp a wild river never been tamped before it was a reminder that light comes after darkness with a high price.  This is why national projects are important for this country ,not only for economy and for employment but to inspire the people and give them hope in the darkest time.
In the end I would like to see these photos and understand the fact that this dam was not built in a day and a night , it was not built by robots but rather humans with dreams and thoughts.
The Builders of the dams are the grandchildren of the diggers of the Suez canal who were by their turn the great decedents of the great builders of the Pyramids , they are the Egyptians.
Notes
1. Adrian Daninos was an engineer and entrepreneur who thought about the high Dam and proposed to the government in 1948 with that idea , of course due to the fact we were at war then and Daninos did not support his ideas with scientific studies needed for this project , the government overlooked it. Daninos was honored by Nasser yet he was forgotten to be remembered this year.
2. He headed the Egyptian Cabinet from 10 September 1966 till 18th June 1967.He passed away on the 28th of March 1996

3 comments:

  1. Sudanese Observer4/18/2010 07:58:00 PM

    Why do insist on nak2 aljiraa7 by consistently failing to mention the Aswan Dam's negative transboundary effects on Sudan?

    The Aswan Dam is an achievement for Egypt and a loss for Sudan and the Sudanese and the Sudanese Nubians whose lands were inundated and whose livelihoods were ruined and who received paltry compensation and no benefit - when compared to Egypt's citizens.

    The Sudanese deserve mention, more than the people who oversaw construction of the dam as they were at least paid for their labour!

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  2. @Sudanese Observer; I think you have to worry more about Ethiopia and its neighbors building dams and obstructing the water supply to both Sudan and Egypt. I am sure that Sudan will then need the help of Egypt, politically and militarily, to ensure their fair share of the Nile water.

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  3. Sudanese Observer4/22/2010 01:14:00 AM

    @ Hazem, Ethiopia doesn't have the topography to build huge storage dams and consume large amounts of the Blue Nile's water.
    FYI Sudan signed an Agreement in 1991 with Ethiopia for the equitable apportionment of the waters of the Blue Nile and Atbara Rivers... Sudan also voted in favour of the UN Watercourses Convention in 1997 which calls for the reasonable and equitable utilization of its international rivers...
    FYI 'we' Sudanese, as opposed to 'you' Egyptians have a real strategic and dynamic partnership with Ethiopia, our relations on the economic and political fronts have never been better, Ethiopia is the biggest local market for our gasoline.
    We even look like the Ethiopians and eat the same kind of food - and they don't parody us in blackface on their media, or insult us...
    Good luck to you and to subsequent generations of your compatriots.

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