Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
sitting at the bar one night and there was sort of a dividing wall, between the bar and
the dining room. The waiters would come to the opening there at the wall to get
drinks and stuff for the dining room. Several times the waitertook the cap off the
bottled water and then rubbed his hand across the top of the bottle, so I figured they
weren't gaining very much by having bottled water.
Q ..
Cleaning it off, huh? How good was the historical data that they had on the rainfall
in a country like Ethiopia?
A ..
On the rainfall itself? I forgot when the Italians took over.
Q ..
35
A ..
`35. There were some records predating that. But they were just the routine
records. I don't remember any extraordinary events that had been recorded.
Thompson developed some estimates of historical flood discharges based on his field
investigations Bleasdale prepared the estimates of probable maximum rainfall and
l
I computed a spillway design flood. Our results were presented in a joint report.
We went on a safari up to the dam site. We flew to the nearest airfield, and then we
were met by our safari group, and boy, I'll tell you it was something. There were
two or three of the Sudan officials with us plus the three consultants. We must have
had thirty or so in the crew, waiters and helpers, and boy, I tell you, it was really
a first-class safari. We were out in the wilderness, but we had linen and silverware,
and everything.
The first thing we did when we got up near the dam site was to go and visit the local
tribal chief. It was the thing to do, I guess. We had an audience with him at his
village there. He had a chair. He had someone with operating a fan and everything
over him. This guy was quite interesting, too. We were camping on the banks of
the Blue Nile. We saw a lot of native animals around. It wasn't safe to go
swimming. I guess it was rhinoceros or hippopotamus, but there were some of them
around.
Q ..
Something there.
A
One evening, we could see a big fire. One of the native villages burned up across
the other side of the river. In that country with a lot of rainfall and everything, the
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