African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1225: Reservoir Immigrants
The status of the city of Gezira in East Africa is somewhat similar to that of the Ili River Valley region of the Far Eastern Empire. It is one of the few habitable areas in the northern desert of East Africa.

The development model is similar to that of Egypt and Sudan. After all, everyone relies on the Nile River for their livelihood, and the Nile River is the only water source for these three places.

Of course, when Sudan occupied Darfur, there was some rainfall in Darfur, but now Darfur has fallen into the hands of East Africa, and the rainfall in other areas of Sudan is almost negligible.

As for the southern region of Sudan where the climate was relatively suitable in the previous life, it had completely turned into the shape of East Africa decades ago.

It is naturally the best way for East Africa to resolve the Darfur issue by dragging its feet at this stage. This way, it can avoid escalating conflicts with Britain and actually occupy the Darfur region.

As for the future, Britain will have no chance to sow discord between the Darfur region and East Africa. After all, by that time, the indigenous people of Darfur will be gone.

……

Northern Great Lakes Province.

Yabulun Village, Jinga City.

The entire northeastern region of the Great Lakes region has been busy with one major event recently, and that is the resettlement of reservoir area immigrants.

It can be seen that many villages have been relocated as a whole, and Yabulun Village is one of the villages that have been relocated as a whole. Vehicles arranged by the government are helping local villagers relocate their belongings.

"Captain Tarolin, all the villagers have arrived. Is it time for the convoy to set off?" Makin, the mayor of Will Town in Jinga City, asked an East African officer.

Tarolin said, "Have you brought all the people's belongings? This time we are moving as a whole. If there are any supplies left behind, we will not come back to move them."

Mayor Ma Jin said, "Don't worry! The villagers don't have much belongings. They won't leave behind anything except their houses. Even worthless things like swivel chairs and benches have all been loaded onto the truck."

Talolin said: "It is better to let them think about it carefully and check it again. We are not in a hurry to set off."

Mayor Ma Jin: "Okay, I'll talk to the village chief right away and make sure not even a needle is left behind."

The East African National Defense Force also participated in this immigration project. After all, the East African National Defense Force has many tasks to do. Especially after East Africa transformed from a militaristic country to a normal country, the focus of military development shifted and the image of the army has become increasingly positive.

Soon, Mayor Ma Jin came to the villagers. He called over the chief of Yabulun Village and gave him a few instructions. After the villagers of Yabulun Village confirmed again and again, Tarolin gave the order to set off.

A huge convoy officially set off and drove from Yabulun Village to the national highway in East Africa.

The villagers sitting in the back of the car began to communicate as they looked at their homeland which was slowly disappearing.

Liu Hande: "If we leave this time, I'm afraid we will never see our village again. I heard that the water from the entire lake will flood this place, but I don't know if it's true."

Village chief Helag said, "Don't talk nonsense. According to water conservancy experts, except for some relatively low-lying areas that may be completely submerged by the lake water, most of the water level will only rise by one or two meters. The altitude of our village is only about half of our body submerged."

"On the contrary, the farmland near the lake will be greatly affected. After all, the lake is too big. Even if the water level rises by one or two meters, the flooded area is quite large. There are many farmlands near the lakeshore, and even roads may be affected to a certain extent."

The Great Lake is the Lake Victoria in the previous life. This kind of lake with an area of ​​tens of thousands of square kilometers is much larger than some countries. Therefore, when the water level in the Great Lakes reservoir rises, the affected area is also very large. The entire southeastern lakeside area of ​​the Great Lakes region will be affected to a certain extent.

Liu Hande: "Village head, building this reservoir is not cost-effective! With so much arable land, we can just exchange it for a hydroelectric power station. We are not short of electricity in East Africa." Helag said: "The government can certainly think of the problems you can think of. Do you think the empire lacks such a small piece of land?"

"The empire's area ranks second in the world, only behind Tsarist Russia. There are a lot of undeveloped areas, not least around the Great Lakes."

Liu Hande retorted: "The empire has a large land area, but the quality of our land here is the best in the country. I feel bad if it is wasted like this."

Helag: "You deserve to farm for the rest of your life. Once the reservoir is built, the Empire can build more farmland. Our country is not short of land, but it is short of water! As long as we use water resources more reasonably, the loss now is nothing but a fortune that can be recovered."

"We have plenty of rainfall here, but water resources are relatively tight across the country, especially in the south and north. In some places, even getting water is a problem. Only by solving the water problem can we better develop the national economy."

Liu Hande: "But what does this have to do with building a reservoir here? Besides, the lake is already a large natural reservoir. Isn't this unnecessary?"

Helag: "I can tell from the fact that you didn't study geography seriously during your compulsory education. Don't you know that the Great Lakes are the main source of the Nile River?"

"It can be said that most of the water from the Great Lakes eventually flows into the Nile River. If we don't intercept it, the water will be wasted on the Egyptians. So the main function of this reservoir is to keep the water in East Africa and then meet our agricultural and industrial water needs."

"Then the hydropower stations built just supply electricity to surrounding cities and towns. Nowadays, electricity consumption is constantly increasing and the gap is getting bigger and bigger, so it's always a good idea to build more hydropower stations and reservoirs."

"As for what you said about unnecessary measures, that is also one-sided. A larger body of water can regulate the climate and increase precipitation. Although we usually have good weather and good harvests here, it does not mean that we can sit back and relax. I remember that we encountered a severe drought in 1886."

"At that time, there was a lot of water in the Great Lakes, but there were not many pumps and pumping stations, and we were in an area east of the Great Lakes where precipitation was relatively low."

"Especially in the western part of the East African Rift Valley, across the mountains from us, that's a pretty dry part of the country. You should know that in Dodoma, the rainfall is only half of what we have here."

After a long talk, the village chief Helag successfully convinced Liu Hande, but it was obvious that his understanding was not comprehensive.

This series of actions by East Africa in the Great Lakes region is actually related to the East African government’s strategy for developing the lakeside economic belt, and also involves the strategic security of water resources in East African countries.

Once the development strategy of the lakeside economic zone is launched, there is no turning back. Therefore, in order to launch the development strategy of the lakeside economic zone in the future, East Africa must first solve some local natural obstacles.

It includes a series of important issues such as the ecology of the Great Lakes region, water resource utilization, construction and development of lakeside ports, lakeside cities and villages, roads, railways, agriculture, etc.

The Xingguo Reservoir was proposed in this context. If East Africa does not launch this project at this time, it will be too late to carry it out later.

This is like the construction of some large reservoirs in the Far East Empire in the previous life. If the local area was not an economically backward area, but instead had some large cities there, then population migration alone would not have been possible to carry out smoothly.

Even so, the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir by the Far East Empire in the previous life still submerged two cities, eleven county towns, and more than one hundred and ten towns.

Now that the Great Lakes region is an agricultural production base in East Africa, urban development is lagging behind. The losses from building the Xingguo Reservoir at this time will be smaller. If we really wait for the local economy to develop, the price to pay will be too high.

Of course, if the local economy develops, East Africa will probably directly abandon the construction of the Xingguo Reservoir. After all, the downstream of the Xingguo Reservoir is not comparable to the downstream of the Three Gorges Reservoir.

Some important purposes of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam are to ensure the safety of cities and agricultural areas in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In contrast, in the lower reaches of the Great Lakes region, that is, along the Nile River, there are not many large cities except Gezira and Juba.

(End of this chapter)