25. Cutting Off the Nile at the Source
British government officials got cracking on ways to implement Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s plan to steal the Nile from Egypt. They eventually drew up secret plans to cut off the flow of the water, in an attempt to force Egypt’s President Nasser to toe the line. In 1956, Britain still controlled Uganda, where the Owen Falls Dam lay astride the White Nile, the main source of the river flowing into Egypt. The idea was to cut off the flow in Uganda, thus reducing the Nile by seven eighths by the time it reached Egypt.
The plan was ultimately rejected because doing so would deprive other countries between Uganda and Egypt of water, would take too long, and would produce a public relations nightmare. Instead, Eden opted for direct military intervention. The result was the 1956 Suez Crisis, which ended with Britain being forced into a humiliating climb down, and the end of Anthony Eden’s political career.