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In that same year, Dulles' withdrawal from a tentative agreement with Egypt to help fund what would become the Aswan Dam on the Nile River led Egypt to seek and obtain aid from the Soviets.

He argued that Sudan would suffer more than Egypt if filling the dam reduced the amount of water flowing into Sudan, as Egypt has a large reserve of water sitting behind its own Aswan dam.

Today, as Egypt marks 50 years of the Aswan Dam, it is embroiled in stormy negotiations with Sudan and Ethiopia to resolve a long-running dispute over another massive dam, one that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile.

“Of course, there were damages,” Sharaky, the university professor, said of the Aswan dam’s construction.

Salman Mohamed, a Sudanese expert on international water law and policy, says Egypt's Aswan dam shows how flood waters can be regulated effectively on The Nile.