Description: The last dam built on the Nile, at the Fourth Cataract, was completed in 2008, displacing more than 60,000 people and flooding 170 kilometers of the river valley and adjacent land. The entire non-desert habitat was lost along with a human heritage that included vast numbers of archaeological sites. This followed on the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960's that displaced 150,000, with even greater damage to the environment and heritage.
Now, eight or more dams are planned and two are under contract, at Kajbar at the Third Cataract and Shereik at the Fifth. The region of Mahas in the Third Cataract is especially populated, with a long and rich history is now directly threatened with destruction. The area upstream of Shereik is less populated, but very poorly known. It is a crisis that will be discussed at a brief conference at the British Museum on May 15, 2012.
This forum is intended to disseminate news and ideas about the dams crises in Sudan and Egypt, past and present, to help develop means to mitigate and possibly even avert some of the worst consequences.