To these have to be added the approximate estimates of the proposed works on the Upper Nile:—
| Regulator for Lake Albert (4 years) | £ | 800,000 |
| Dredging and training works in the Albert Nile and the Zeraf river (12 years) | £ | 1,200,000 |
| Total | £ | 2,000,000 |
| Grand total of works on the Upper and Lower Nile | £ | 6,000,000 |
The total expenditure amounts to £6,000,000 spread over 12 years.
The great advantage of undertaking all those works together may be thus summarized. The increased supply from the Assuân reservoir will be felt in Egypt after a period of two years. Five years later the waters of the Wady Rayan will be added to those of the Assuân reservoir, and it will be possible to increase the cotton crop of Egypt from 6 million to 10 million cwt. It will be possible to allow the Sudan to thoroughly develop its agricultural resources, and with the aid of the 25,000 horse power as a minimum which the 6th cataract near Khartoum can supply, to utilise for its own consumption the waters which can be stored at that cataract; and, in addition to those, the available supplies from Lake Tsana provided that that lake is furnished with an outlet tunnel.
While all this life and activity will be developing themselves in Egypt and the Sudan, the effects of the regulator of Lake Albert and the training of the Albert Nile in the Sudd regions will be gradually asserting themselves; and, if the works are being steadily and perseveringly carried out, it is well within the range of possibility that before 10 or 12 years will have passed, the additional supplies from the upper waters of the White Nile will have become so ample, that it will be possible to dispense with the Wady Rayan as a reservoir. When this will have happened, the Wady Rayan with its canal will become the true flood escape of Egypt, like the ancient Lake Mœris, and will, with the Rosetta branch, afford complete protection to Egypt against the dangers of a high flood. Egypt, in the fullest meaning of the term, will be enjoying perennial irrigation and flood protection.
In my book on the “Assuân Reservoir and Lake Mœris” I had recommended a more extended programme, but the reading of Sir William Garstin’s Report has convinced me that useful as the Lake Victoria reservoir dam may be, its postponement as recommended by Sir William is sound, until all the other works have been executed. The really essential work is the Lake Albert reservoir dam, of which the study might indeed be commenced immediately. Sir William’s proposal to train the summer supply of the Albert Nile and allow the overflow of the floods to find its way through the Sudd region is so sound and convincing that the necessary training works in the Sudd region are greatly reduced. With these reductions the estimated cost of the project for water storage and flood protection for Egypt is reduced from £8,200,000 to £6,000,000. I have left the Wady Rayan estimate as it was in my original programme. Mr. Webb’s criticism of the project was based on facts which are outside the project. He supposed that the Wady Rayan was to remain a reservoir for all time and that it was not to be aided by the works on the Upper Nile. Now the project I proposed and which I propose now, presupposes that the Wady Rayan will be a temporary reservoir and final flood escape for the Nile, and that it will be aided in years of very deficient flood by the gradual improvement of the Upper Nile owing to the works undertaken there.
37. Sir William Garstin’s programme for water storage and flood control.
—In the first appendix to his Report on the Upper Nile, Sir William Garstin, G.C.M.G., Adviser to the Ministry of Public Works, has drawn up a programme of works for water storage and flood control in the Nile valley. He approves of the raising of the Assuân dam for £500,000, and the conversion of the Rosetta branch of the Nile into a flood escape for £900,000. He then conditionally approves of a proposal suggested by Mr. J. S. Beresford, C.I.E., for making a straight cut from Bor on the Albert Nile to the mouth of the Sobat river at the tail of the Albert Nile. The line would be 340 kilometres in length and is estimated to cost £5,500,000, and carry 600 cubic metres per second in summer. In case of the line being found impracticable when it was surveyed and levelled, Sir William proposed abandoning the Albert Nile and thoroughly widening and deepening the Zeraf river for £3,400,000.
As a criticism of the Bor cut project I cannot write anything more convincing from my point of view than a letter written by me and published by “The Engineer” in October of this year.
“In your issue of the 16th September Sir Hanbury Brown has reviewed the scheme suggested by Mr. J. S. Beresford, C.I.E., and conditionally approved by Sir William Garstin, for diverting the waters of the Albert Nile (known as the Bahr-el-Gebel) from Bor to the mouth of the Sobat river, on a length 340 kilometres, and sending them down a canal capable of carrying 600 cubic metres per second, at an estimated cost of £5,500,000. In his review Sir Hanbury puts his finger on the weak point in the project, viz., the difficulty and loss of water entailed at the crossing of the Albert Nile just upstream of the Sobat mouth. The difficulty will be got over, as Sir Hanbury himself suggests, by an earthen embankment provided with a regulator. The loss of water cannot be got over.