The dam had blocked up the rich, flood-borne silt that had nurtured the fertile Nile Valley for millennia.
尼羅河上游是大片的沼澤區，每年洪水泛濫，沼澤沃土就被沖到河中，順流而下，在尼羅河谷兩岸堆積成六百萬英畝的「上品」地，幾世紀來，它的生產力從未稍減。建壩前，埃及有將近一千萬人在這塊土地上耕種為生。