Sardeh Band Dam as the High Dam in Aswan, Egypt, indicating a larger Soviet strategy for the development of third world nations it sought to bring under its sphere of influence. Large lettered Russian writing is still present on the down-stream face of the dam (visible from over 500 meters away) commemorating its completion in Russian and Pashto script. On the left it reads: "сарде 1967" and on the right: دسرده بند۱۳۴۶ According to USAID's Ghazni Infrastructure Needs Assessment: September 14–18, 2003 The Deputy Governor and other provincial officials agreed that the top priority for irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation in Ghazni province is the
Aswan Dam including Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Aird, whose firm, John Aird & Co., was the main contractor. In 1952, the Greek-Egyptian engineer Adrian Daninos began to develop the plan of the new Aswan Dam. Although the Low Dam was almost overtopped in 1946, the government of King Farouk showed no interest in Daninos's plans. Instead the Nile Valley Plan by the British hydrologist Harold Edwin Hurst to store water in Sudan and Ethiopia, where evaporation is much lower, was favored. The Egyptian position changed completely with the overthrow of the monarchy, led by the Free Officers Movement including Gamal