Article ID: CBB001212856

The Aswan Dam and Egyptian Water Control Policy, 1882--1902 (2013)

unapi

Cookson-Hills, Claire (Author)


Radical History Review
Volume: 116
Pages: 59--85


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Water: History, Power, Crisis”
Language: English

Contemporary Egyptian regulation of the Nile is a direct outgrowth of the traditions of British imperialism. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the British extended their military and political occupation of Egypt to the physical regulation of the river, in order to enact a concrete imperial priority: growing cotton. One way the occupiers implemented this policy objective was through the design and construction of the Aswan Dam (1898 -- 1902) by British engineers and British engineering firms. The engineers followed nineteenth-century hydraulic engineering principles, which stressed the implementation of universalist mathematical theories over local technologies. In the process of creating the Aswan Dam, these engineers redefined the Nile, not as a river with natural flow and rhythms, but as a resource to be tapped and parsed. Although the dam was the source of considerable contemporary discussion, that debate focused on structural aspects rather than environmental and social repercussions.

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Article Tam, Stephanie (2013) Sewerage's Reproduction of Caste: The Politics of Coprology in Ahmedabad, India. Radical History Review (p. 5). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212856/

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Authors & Contributors
Stroshane, Tim
Rodeghiero, Flavio
Bonan, Giacomo
Osvaldo Francescon
Diana J. Montaño
Susan B. Butters
Concepts
Water resource management
Water
Hydraulic engineering
Technology and politics
Natural resource management
Dams
Time Periods
19th century
Renaissance
20th century, early
20th century
16th century
Medieval
Places
Italy
United States
Venice (Italy)
India
Great Britain
Bologna (Italy)
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