eas-experts-naga

first time. An expert in his field, Baha shared with me his frustrations and hopes and his keen desire to raise awareness about an important project which he has been advocating for the past ten years. He spoke with such passion and conviction that I felt it was my duty to attempt to make his voice heard through the EAS modest publication.

Baha left Alexandria at the age of 2 when his father was appointed as a translator to the UNESCO in Paris, France and where both his parents completed their doctorate degrees at the famous Sorbonne University. Eventually the family moved to the United States in 1974 when Arabic became an official language of the United Nations and Baha’s father, Dr. Sayed Abulnaga, was asked to create the department of Arabic interpreters. When a new department was also founded at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Dr. Abulnaga was once again asked to head this effort and the family moved back to Europe.

Baha obtained his Bachelor degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of London and then returned to Egypt to complete his military service. While there, he thought about applying for a Masters degree in his specialty, but the officer in charge of his platoon refused to give him authorization to attend day courses at Cairo University. This prompted Baha to register for night courses at the American University in Cairo but had no choice but to do a Masters degree in Materials Engineering, as Aeronautical Engineering courses were not offered at the AUC at the time.

This unintentional change in his line of studies embarked Baha into a career in Mining which spanned 23 years and had him work in Australia, Canada, the United States and South America. He finally returned to the US in 2004 when Chevron hired him as an advisor on "slurry hydrocracking" a revolutionary process which aims to produce synthetic petroleum from tar. Some of his work at Chevron was patented and he is listed as the inventor for the recovery of catalysts. In 2007 he joined the Fluor Corporation where he has been leading the department of slurry pipelines until today.

Following the publication of his 800 page book “Slurry Systems Handbook” in 2002, Baha approached Dr. Farouk ElBaz about the sedimentation of Lake Nasser-Nubia.

According to published data, 85% of Lake Nasser-Nubia – which runs 150km in Sudan and 350km in Egypt – is sedimented. This sedimentation caused its depth to be reduced from 25 meters back in the mid sixties to 6 meters only in the present day in the most affected areas of Nubia. Satellite images even point to the formation of a new Delta.

Egypt’s share of silt (طمي) which neared 135 million cubic meters per year before the construction of the High Dam decreased to only 4% of that amount. Its land became arid, chemical fertilizers became the norm and the brick industry died, leaving the farmers with no other option than to use top soil to manufacture the bricks they so desperately need.

The solution proposed by Baha consists of dredging the silt from the Lake Nasser-Nubia, transporting it to shore using slurry pipelines which will deposit it into special ponds. Gravity will cause the sediments to sink while the extra water can be reused for irrigation or simply returned to the Nile.