Word: nile
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...trouble with the Nile has always been its irregularity. Most of the year it flows sluggishly far below its banks. But between July and October, a great gush of muddy water floods the narrow, fertile valley. For the ancient Egyptians, who did not demand too much of their sacred river, the flood was fine. They built mud dikes around the fields, and caught the flood water in shallow basins. The silt settled to the bottom, keeping the soil fertile, millennium after millennium. When the water. was gone, the peasants planted their crops, often without plowing or other preparation...
...system, essentially unchanged, is still used in much of Egypt. It is no good for growing cotton and other long-season crops, so it has been supplanted in the lower valley by dams and canals that make year-round irrigation possible. For the modern system, the irregularity of the Nile is a serious matter. During the annual flood, much water goes out to sea unused; during the rest of the year, there is not enough water. A great deal more acreage could be devoted to the valuable long-season crops if the Nile could be forced to flow steadily...
Most of the Nile's annual flood comes roaring down the Blue Nile and the neighboring Atbara when moist seasonal winds blowing across central Africa hit the high mountains of Ethiopia. A dam at the outlet of Lake Tana on the Blue Nile's headwaters will deepen the lake by about 13 feet, and allow it to hold in reserve for the dry season some 1,400 billion gallons of water. With necessary roads, power plants, etc. in wild Ethiopia, this dam is expected to cost $28 million...
...White Nile is a tougher engineering problem. Its two huge lakes, Victoria and Albert, will be made into reservoirs with enough storage capacity to give complete control of the tributary. A lesser dam must be built to control the water in swampy Lake Kioga...
Thirsty Sudd. Below Lake Albert lies the Sudd, a vast swamp choked with papyrus and other tall grasses. The White Nile seeps slowly through this tangle, and loses nearly half its water in the process. Engineers plan to cut a canal 186 miles long, to bypass the water-stealing Sudd...