Aswan Dam droughts in 1972–73 and 1983–87 that devastated East and West Africa. The High Dam allowed Egypt to reclaim about 2.0 million feddan (840,000 hectares) in the Nile Delta and along the Nile Valley, increasing the country's irrigated area by a third. The increase was brought about both by irrigating what used to be desert and by bringing under cultivation of 385,000 ha that were previously used as flood retention basins. About half a million families were settled on these new lands. In particular the area under rice and sugar cane cultivation increased. In addition, about 1 million feddan (420,000 hectares),
Tsiazompaniry Dam base of the dam began in 2011. Tsiazompaniry Dam The Tsiazompaniry Dam is a buttress dam on the Varahina-South River, a tributary of the Ikopa River, near Tsiazompaniry in the Analamanga Region of Madagascar. The dam was constructed by a French firm in 1956. It creates Lake Tsiazompaniry, the largest reservoir in the country, which has a surface area of and a storage volume of . A second buttress dam, northwest of the main dam helps withhold the reservoir. Water released from the dam supplies a regulated flow to hydroelectric power station at the Antelomita Dam downstream. Efforts to install