Egypt’s Aswan Damn

That’s why when I saw the below quotation about second-level effects from Egypt’s Aswan Dam, I was both intrigued and skeptical. For now I believe that this increase can be as much attributed to general increased agriculture production (population growth, more arable land after creation of the dam, more fertilizer used per acre as increased output seen) and production choice (exports, subsidies, tariffs, and more) as the pure need for more fertilizer “created” by the Aswan Dam. This would mean that Egypt would need many more Aswan Dams worth of electricity production just to accommodate fertilizer consumption (or would need to import all extra fertilizer). Again, I don’t think that all the dam’s electricity production actually went to fertilizer production. Yes, the annual flood of the Nile did increase agricultural production historically but the quote above makes it seem like keeping things as is (no Aswan High Dam) would have been a better choice.

Source: unintendedconsequenc.es