The Lakes Shrink A Toshka Project, Egypt story
Agriculture
Deserts
Water
The only two places for water in this arid region to go are into the air or into the ground. The underlying limestone prevents much ground infiltration. In the Toshka region, annual precipitation averages a meager 1.5 millimeters, and the potential evaporation rate is 14–15 millimeters per day. With no natural outlet and reduced water input to these lakes from Lake Nasser, the water evaporated quickly. Starting in 2019, flooding rains in Sudan once again brought excess water to Lake Nasser, and water once again flowed into the Toshka basin.
Location
Dec. 8 and 15, 1989, Landsat 4 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Aug. 19 and 26, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Aug. 19 and 28, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Aug. 23 and 30, 2017, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
July 3 and 12, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Mar. 24 and 18, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Nov. 22 and 29, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 175,176/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Feb. 9, 10, 2022, Landsat 9, 8 (path/row 176,175/44) — Toshka Lakes, Egypt
Toshka Project, Egypt Additional Imagery & Stories
Irrigated Fields
The Landsat images show the appearance of center-pivot irrigation fields near one of the diminishing lakes. As of 2012, however, only about 21,000 hec...
Pumping Station
As part of the Toshka Project, a pumping station sends water from Lake Nasser to irrigated fields in the Toshka basin. The Mubarak Pumping Station has...
Submerged Dunes
These close-ups of one of the larger lakes show how the formation and reduction of the lakes affected sand dunes. Sand dunes became inundated as the ...
The Lakes Form
The Aswan High Dam on the Nile River was completed in 1970 for flood protection and to store water during dry years. The dam formed Lake Nasser, the t...