Economic Importance of the Nile River

There is a lot to know about the River Nile. To start with, it is the longest and most powerful river in the world. It is also a major attraction whenever an individual visits Egypt or surrounding countries. The beauty of the river will undoubtedly attract you and it will not take seconds before you think of your digital camera. Besides taking pictures, there is also a lot to collate on the river. For instance, understanding the economic importance of the Nile River is a nice position to get started.

One cannot think of anything good about Egypt without bringing river Nile into the picture. Even Herodotus quoted this epigram “Egypt is the gift of the Nile” to express the succinctness and appropriateness of the Egyptian nation. Most of the ancient Egyptians understood the socio-economic and political importance of river Nile and majority settled along the river. The ancient Egyptians could not survive without the Nile. In a sense, Egypt receives the low amount of rainfall and the floods from river Nile offered a better way to grow crops from the water residues on their lands.

During these floods, the waters also left behind nutritious elements that made it easy to grow crops.  The heavy banner-servicessummer rains in the Ethiopian highland had great influence on the settlement of Egyptians along the Nile River. Evidently, heavy torrents of water were sent into the Nile and through the long stretch into the river, thick mud was left behind and offered nice fields for planting seeds. Hence, Egyptians occupied all the land along the river and made a good income from the sale of their farm produces. This action later led to conflicts and war with surrounding countries.

River Nile also provided Egyptians with reeds commonly known as papyrus and they used them to make boats and paper. At the end of the day, they would make good money from their successful trade with other people from neighbouring countries. Food insecurity has been a big issue in Africa. But for Egypt and surrounding areas, agriculture has always been the backbone of the economy around the river.

Egyptians indulged into food production and made good money from the imports that they made. Fishing also offered enough food to interchange with other farm produces.  Therefore, malnutrition and deaths of children have been minimal in Egypt and areas across the river. Ancient Egyptians used spears and nets to catch different species of fish in the river. Transportation of farm produces and bulk fishes was not a big issue as water transport was the in-thing for many people living along the river. Through boats, travelling from one region to another became easy.

Besides being able to enjoy good incomes from their farm produces, Egyptians and many countries around River Nile can also enjoy fresh water that is scarce in many other parts of Africa. More revenues are coming in from the tourism industry as more and more people visit boat cruise along the river and to sightsee what other nations cannot offer. Today, with advancement in technology, river Nile also provides hydro-electricity and floods are limited since the construction of the Aswan Dam. Indeed, the Nile River has changed the lifestyle and thinking of many people along the Nile basin.

     

     Things You Didn’t Know About the Nile

•  The Nile is Africa’s longest river, covering 4,101 miles – roughly the distance of flying between Tahiti and San Francisco.
• The Nile Basin covers nearly 10% of the landmass of the African continent, and is home to 160 million people.

•  The significance of the Nile can be traced backed to ancient Egypt. The rich agriculture along the riverbanks – and the wealth it generated – enabled the construction of the great pyramids of Giza.

• The river got its English and Arabic names from the Greek word “neilos,” which means “valley.” The ancient Egyptians named the river “Ar” (“black”) because the annual floods would deposit black sediment in the fields.

•  In 1970, the Aswan High Dam was completed. It provides about half of Egypt’s power, and it curbed the river’s historic floods.

•  The flooding of the Nile was such a regular annual event that ancient Egyptians used it to create an incredibly accurate calendar. 

• The Nile gave rise to some of the world’s earliest cultures. In 1787, the Rosetta Stone was found in the Nile Delta city of Rosetta. This ancient artifact played a key role in helping anthropologists decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
•  In total, the Nile and its tributaries pass through ten countries in Central, Eastern and Northern Africa, providing food, water for irrigation, and transportation.

• Dams have reduced the flow of the Nile so much that some areas are now experiencing drinking water shortages due to pollution.

• Egypt’s Western Desert shows what the country would be without the Nile: rolling sand dunes, scorching heat, little vegetation, dust storms and locusts – with just a few oases.

• Even today, a common Egyptian blessing is: "May you always drink from the Nile."

• The Nile is home to an immense amount of wildlife: Hippos, black rhinos, the Nile Crocodile, amphibians, reptiles, snakes, birds and some unexpected animals call the river home. 

•  The river sources its water from two tributaries: the White Nile, which flows from Lake Victoria (the second-largest freshwater lake in the world), and the Blue Nile, which flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia (where it’s alleged that the Virgin Mary rested on her journey from Egypt).

• No one had traveled the entire length of the Nile until 2004. It took two explorers four months to make the trip. 

•  One of the explorers, Pasquale Scaturro, said the Nile was not the slow, lazy river he’d expected. "It has rapids, waterfalls, jungle, canyons, deserts, hippos, crocs, long flat beautiful sections, huge beautiful sandbars," he says. "There is no other river in the world that can compare."

•  The Nile has inspired art and literature from ancient times up until the present – most recently the Nile Project.

•  All the nutrient-rich silt which once fed the fields is now trapped behind the dam, which is silting up. Meanwhile, farmers are forced to rely on expensive artificial fertilizers to substitute for the nutrients no longer in the flood plain.

•  Further downstream, the delta is eroding without its annual deposit of sediment.

• The Aswan Dam flooded 90,000 Nubians out of their ancestral homes.