Aswan Dam the water saved is lost due to evaporation in Lake Nasser, the amount of water available for irrigation still increased by 22 km. Other estimates put evaporation from Lake Nasser at between 10 and 16 cubic km per year. The dam powers twelve generators each rated at , with a total of . Power generation began in 1967. When the High Dam first reached peak output it produced around half of Egypt's production of electric power (about 15 percent by 1998), and it gave most Egyptian villages the use of electricity for the first time. The High Dam has also
Aswan Dam soil surface over the years. Since most of the farmland did not have proper subsurface drainage to lower the groundwater table, salinization gradually affected crop yields. Drainage through sub-surface drains and drainage channels is essential to prevent a deterioration of crop yields from soil salinization and waterlogging. By 2003, more than 2.0 million have been equipped with a subsurface drainage system at a cost from 1973 to 2002 of about $3.1 billion. Contrary to many predictions made prior to the Aswan High Dam construction and publications that followed, that the prevalence of schistosomiasis (bilharzia) would increase, it did not. This