An Appeal to Stop the Destruction of Nubia

The Nubian people, their land, habitat, and heritage are once again under threat of exile and destruction by the construction of great dams. As widely documented on the internet, and especially on the site http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/6121, three dams are now under contract in Sudan and a fourth (Dal) is moving forward. As with the hydroelectric project at Hamdab (Merowe), they are being built by Chinese companies with European advice. While the original High Dam at Aswan has been touted for its positive economic effects, it created a large diaspora, damaged the environment, not least of Egypt, and had a devastating effect on heritage, both past and present, both in Nubia and Egypt. The Hamdab dam displaced an entire people forcibly (Manasir), with deeply incomplete compensation, and others (Rubatab, Shaikiya of Amri) partly. Now dams at Dal and Kajbar will further drastically reduce the land of the Nubian people to a fraction of what it was half a century ago. Apart from further large-scale damage to the environment, the heritage of the past in these areas will be lost. Dal threatens Sai Island and Soleb among other sites, Kajbar the immense rock art site of Sabu and the inscriptions of Nauri, for example. To reduce the Middle Nile to a series of lakes is unconscionable, and it is being done without the consent of those the dams would affect most. Some already have died in defense of their homes. I therefore presented the following resolution to the Board of Governors of the American Research Center in Egypt...