Garstin, William Edmund (1849–1925)

English civil engineer. From 1892 to 1904 he was inspector general of irrigation in Egypt. He explored the whole length of the Nile and decided that the water of the lower river should be stored during the annual flood and distributed through irrigation channels when the level had subsided. The necessary work, most of which he directed himself, included the construction of the first Aswan Dam and the barrages at Asyut and Esna. He also caused the White Nile to be cleared for navigation. He was knighted in 1897.