On this day in 1960: Construction began on the Aswan High Dam in Egypt

Construction began on the Aswan High Dam in January 1960, marking one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in modern Egyptian history and a defining moment in the country’s post-colonial development. Rising on the Nile near the city of Aswan in southern Egypt, the project was conceived as a solution to centuries of flooding, drought and food insecurity, while also serving as a powerful symbol of national sovereignty and industrial ambition.

A response to the Nile’s unpredictability
For millennia, Egypt’s prosperity depended on the annual Nile floods, which deposited fertile silt across the valley. Yet the same floods also brought devastation, destroying crops and settlements in some years while failing entirely in others. The Aswan High Dam was designed to regulate this cycle by storing water in a vast reservoir, later named Lake Nasser, allowing Egypt to manage irrigation year-round and expand agricultural output in both Upper and Lower Egypt.

Engineering on a monumental scale
The project dwarfed earlier efforts, including the original Aswan Low Dam built during the British colonial period. When completed, the dam stretched nearly four kilometres in length and rose more than 100 metres high, containing tens of millions of cubic metres of rock and earth. Its hydroelectric power station was planned to generate a substantial share of Egypt’s electricity, supporting rapid industrialisation and urban growth during the 1960s and 1970s.

Cold War politics and international backing
Construction began after years of geopolitical manoeuvring. Initially, Western financing was withdrawn amid political tensions, prompting President Gamal Abdel Nasser to nationalise the Suez Canal in 1956 to fund the project. Ultimately, the Soviet Union provided crucial technical expertise, equipment and financial support. The dam thus became a visible manifestation of Egypt’s non-aligned stance and the broader Cold War competition for influence in the Middle East and Africa.

Social and environmental consequences
While the benefits were substantial, the project also carried significant costs. Tens of thousands of Nubians were displaced as their ancestral lands were flooded by Lake Nasser, leading to long-term social and cultural disruption. Environmentally, the dam trapped nutrient-rich silt, reducing soil fertility downstream and contributing to coastal erosion in the Nile Delta. These impacts continue to shape debates around large-scale river engineering.

A lasting legacy
When construction began in 1960, the Aswan High Dam represented faith in technology as a driver of national progress. More than six decades later, it remains central to Egypt’s water management and energy system, while standing as a reminder that transformative infrastructure projects bring both enduring benefits and complex trade-offs.

Newshub Editorial in Africa – 9 January 2026

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