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sudanese Flooding and the Nubian civlization

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Tk101 View Drop Down
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  Quote Tk101 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: sudanese Flooding and the Nubian civlization
    Posted: 15-Jun-2008 at 19:25
i was wondering if anyone new of any new discoveries that came from the "rush" to salvage the ruins of nubia.?
 
SUDAN: Flooding near new dam displaces thousands

NAIROBI, 16 August 2006 (IRIN) - Rising floodwaters have displaced more than 2,200 families from the Amri community living near the Merowe/Hamadab dam on the River Nile in northern Sudan, local sources say.

According to a report by an activist group, the Leadership Office of Hamadab Affected People (LOHAP), the Merowe dam authorities opened the floodgates on 7 August and started to fill up the reservoir behind the dam. Since then, about 700 houses have been destroyed in the villages of Shikora, Al Bana, um Haza, El Batareen, Um Kouk, El Khezian and Gerf El Doud.

"It seems to have happened overnight and without advance warning," Peter Bosshard, policy director of the International Rivers Network (IRN), said. On the day the flooding started, the dam authorities told villagers they had five days to move to a resettlement site, he added.

The villagers have lost everything and are without shelter, clean water or food. More than 12,000 heads of livestock have been lost, according to the LOHAP report, and the floods have covered fields and destroyed crops and fodder.

"Villagers who managed to leave the area reported that many human remains are surfacing on the water as a result of graveyards being inundated by the rising waters. Thousands of dead animals float in the floodwaters, and the water is completely contaminated," the report warned.

Some observers claim the flooding was a natural occurrence and resulted from the rising Nile waters, but Bosshard rejected this argument, saying it was localised and in the direct vicinity of the dam.

"We heard both versions of the story but we weren't in a position to establish how the flooding happened - but the fact of the matter is that people have been affected," Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said.

A UNMIS humanitarian mission that went to the region to try to assess the damage on Monday was prevented from entering the Amri area by Sudanese authorities. "We are discussing the issue with the authorities right now," Achouri said.

The Sudanese dam authorities were not available to comment on the flooding.

Tension

The Merowe/Hamadab dam is the largest hydropower project under construction in Africa, but observers have warned that the project, which is expected to displace 50,000 people from the fertile Nile valley to arid locations in the Nubian Desert, might lead to violence.

The 67-metre-high Merowe dam, once completed in 2008-09, will create a 200 km-long reservoir and flood an area of 476 sq km. It will have the capacity to produce up to 1,250 megawatts of power, roughly doubling Sudan's power-generating capacity.

The Sudanese government has offered the affected families cash compensation for lost assets, a new house, land at resettlement sites and free utility services for two years after resettlement. Since June 2003, about 10,000 affected people have been moved from the fertile Nile Valley to the El Multaga resettlement site in the Nubian Desert.

Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid, the Sudanese minister of humanitarian affairs, told IRIN in an earlier interview: "I think this is one of the best-organised projects with the best-organised response for those that have been affected.

"I have been there to see their places. They have proper houses, they have proper facilities, they have farms, everything. And it is even better than the old villages," Hamid said. "They have been compensated generously."

Tensions have risen, however, after communities complained about the quality of the resettlement sites and refused to move. An IRN/Corner House report on the environmental impacts of the Merowe dam said the soil at the resettlement site was so poor the farmers could not grow produce to sell on the market.

Whereas the communities demand to be resettled around the dam reservoir, the dam authority insists on resettling the remaining people in the Bayouda Desert. As a result, about 40,000 people - predominantly Manasir and Amri - are still holding out in the Nile Valley while the dam construction progresses.

In April, armed men reportedly linked to the dam authorities, opened fire on a gathering of villagers in a local school, killing three people and injuring 47.

 
More info
 
There are some institutions that had some hand in the efforts... but i think there were 2 projects involved in the process.
 

INTRODUCTION

The Oriental Institute participated in the UNESCO international salvage excavation project in the reservoir area of the Aswan High Dam in Upper Egypt in 1960-64. The project was directed by Keith Seele, Professor of Egyptology at the Institute. The expedition was based on the former Cook tourist boat "Fostat", accompanied by another houseboat, the "Barbara", a tug boat, and a motor launch, all purchased and modified to provide mobile housing, laboratories and storage space. In the first season the project produced an epigraphic record of the Beit El-Wali Temple, near the High Dam. In subsequent seasons the expedition moved its little fleet up the Nile to a new concession between the temples at Abu Simbel and the border of the Sudanese Republic. Excavations were conducted in a monastery, at habitation sites, and in a number of cemeteries extending for miles along both banks of the Nile. These excavations contributed information on every period of Egyptian Nubia from the Old Kingdom through Coptic times.

After the death of Professor Seele in 1971, the Institute initiated a project to complete the publication of the results of the Egyptian Nubia excavations. The publication project was entrusted to Bruce Williams, Ph.D., a graduate of the University of Chicago in Egyptology. The first two volumes were published before Williams was assigned to the project. Since then Williams has completed eight monumental monographs (1986-93) that will stand as the fundamental sources for the archaeology and history of Egyptian Nubia. Williams is currently working on two additional volumes. Another two volumes are also in preparation by collaborators, including one Ph.D. dissertation. Williams has devoted his entire academic career to the Nubia publications. His dedication is admirable and the Institute takes pride in the fact that the Nubia publication project is near completion.

Because the Nubian expedition was a part of the UNESCO salvage project, the Egyptian Government granted export license for a large collection of objects recovered by the expedition. These artifacts are now a part of the perminent collection of the Institute and will serve as a valuable resource for generations of scholars as new questions are raised and new techniques of analysis are introduced. Two museum exhibitions of Nubian materials from the collection have been mounted; one of magnificent textiles at the Art Institute, and a fine educational exhibition in the Oriental Institute Museum. The exhibit in our museum, Vanished Kingdoms of the Nile: The Recovery of Ancient Nubia, attracted many enthuiastic new visitors to the museum and received a "Superior Achievement" award from the Congress of Illinois Historical Societies and Museums in 1992, as well as considerable press coverage, including a favorable review in the New York Times.

 
 
 
 
i hope that they saved as much as possible but this project would never replace the irreplaceable and valueable relecs of this societies ancient past
 
there is only one truth
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