African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1230 Water Rights
However, this flourishing economy is limited to cities along the Great Lakes and does not cover the entire Great Lakes region. For the East African government, the Great Lakes region is a food production base, so too much agricultural land cannot be sacrificed for industrial development.

On the other hand, the future industrial structure of East Africa will obviously still be dominated by coastal and central regions, and violating the laws of economic development is obviously unsustainable.

The reason why the central region, which is not located on the coast, is special lies in the three aspects of administration, resources and transportation. The capital city of Rhine is in the central part, which needs no further explanation.

In terms of mineral resources, the central region is second only to the south, but the central region does not have the shortcoming of water resources. It also has a good climate and a good industrial and agricultural foundation, which is also lacking in the southern region.

In terms of transportation, the intersection of East Africa's railways, roads and canals is in the central part. The two major railway hubs in East Africa are New Frankfurt and Rhine City, which are also two major highway hubs. At the same time, the central part is the middle section of the East African Canal, connecting the east and west coastal areas of East Africa.

In the future, the central region will also become the core hub of East Africa's domestic aviation industry. It can be said that in addition to sea transportation, transportation in the central region is extremely developed and convenient.

This can be seen from the cities in the central region. The economies of Mbeya, Harare, New Frankfurt and Bulawayo rank among the top ten in East Africa, while cities such as Rhine, Lusaka, Kissan and Tete are also developing rapidly, and small industrial and mining cities in the central region are even more numerous.

In the early stages of industrialization, the economic size of central East Africa was quite astonishing, accounting for almost half of East Africa's economy, especially in the heavy industry sector. Of course, with the further compression of shipping costs and the depletion of resources, the central economy is bound to be impacted in the future.

However, there is no need to worry about the future of the central region's economy. East Africa's high-tech industries have been deployed in the central region relatively early. Cities such as Mbeya and Rhine are typical scientific and educational cities in East Africa, while cities such as New Frankfurt and Kissan are typical light industrial cities.

In terms of industrial layout, the industries in the central region are relatively reasonable and healthy, and at least the situation that will occur in Germany's Ruhr area in the future will not occur.

The problem of resource depletion in the central region at most involves some small industrial and mining towns. East Africa's development of the central mining industry has a history of several decades, which is bound to lead to the premature depletion of some small mining areas.

Although the future of these mining towns is worrying, they are not completely useless and have many legacy assets.

Take the East African national railway for example. The central region is the most densely populated. Many of the more than 200,000 kilometers of railways in East Africa were built for these mining areas, and the remaining buildings, equipment, etc. are countless.

During the Fourth Five-Year Plan period, an important task of the East African government was to guide the central region, especially the provinces of Bohemia and Lorraine, to actively develop other industries, break away from dependence on heavy industry, and develop in a diversified manner.

……

Rhine City.

Sweet is reporting to Ernst on the progress of the construction work in the Great Lakes region.

"Currently, a series of preliminary work in the Great Lakes region is progressing smoothly. A total of 13 ports have started construction and renovation, and some roads and railway lines are being adjusted."

"The construction of the most important hydropower facilities is also progressing smoothly. Once completed, the water resource allocation capacity of the northern part of our country will be further enhanced."

“Especially the water supply problems in the Nile River Province in the Nile River Basin and Turkana Province with Lake Turkana as its core will be greatly alleviated.”

The water resource situation in Turkana Province and Nile Province is completely opposite. In Nile Province, the water shortage increases as the area moves north, all the way to the desert area of ​​Sudan.

The water shortage in Turkana Province increases as you go south. Turkana Province can be divided into two parts, one is the Ethiopian region in the previous life, and the other is the northern Kenya region in the previous life.

The Ethiopian Plateau has abundant rainfall, while the rainfall in northern Kenya in the past was only slightly better than that in the Somali Desert. This can be seen from Lake Turkana, whose water source mainly comes from the Omo River, which originates from the Ethiopian Plateau and flows into Lake Turkana from north to south.

Therefore, in Turkana Province, most rivers originate from the Ethiopian Plateau, and a small part comes from the East African Plateau, such as the Tekwel River, which also flows into Lake Turkana.

"Our development of the Great Lakes water resources will alleviate the drought problem in the two areas, and thereby transform the local ecology and climate, greatly enhancing the livability of the two areas," said Sweet.

"The utilization of the two water towers in the East African Plateau and the Ethiopian Plateau has made agricultural and industrial development in the northern region a reality for us."

For East Africa, the most fundamental issue in the development of the northern region is the utilization and development of water resources, which is even more serious than in South Africa.

After all, the northern part of East Africa is the world's largest Sahara Desert, and in the past, South Sudan, Somalia and Kenya, these East African regions were all threatened by the desert.

The most typical of these is the Nile Province in East Africa, which belongs to the Sahel zone. Other areas in East Africa, such as the Azande Plateau, also border the Sahara Desert, but it is impossible for the Sahara Desert to crawl over along the terrain.

The Nile Province is quite different. It is mainly a basin-shaped terrain. Although there is the Kordofan Plateau as a barrier in the north, there are also gaps and it is easily threatened by the desert.

Because Ernst wanted Sudan's oil resources, the Nile Province expanded a lot of territory into the northern Sudan region of the previous life. Most of these territories have a tropical desert climate. The most typical one is the city of Gezira on the banks of the Nile River, which almost protrudes into Khartoum, the administrative center of Sudan.

Of course, this is an exaggeration. After all, the straight-line distance between Gezira and Khartoum is nearly 200 kilometers.

Ernst said: "Very good. By making good use of the water resources of the Ethiopian Plateau and the East African Plateau, we can build many ecological zones in the Nile Province and Turkana Province. Whether these areas become forests, grasslands, farmlands or towns, it is good for us."

This kind of cross-regional water diversion project in Africa can only be completed in East Africa. After all, these regions did not belong to the same country in the past, and coordination was difficult to achieve.

For example, the southern part of Turkana Province belonged to Kenya in the past, while the northern part belonged to Ethiopia. If Kenya wanted to use Ethiopia’s water resources, it was basically impossible. Even Ethiopia built a reservoir upstream, which cut off the water supply originally provided to the Kenyan area.

The competition for "water rights" along the Nile River is even more intense. In the past, Egypt had put a lot of thought into the issue of water resources, and had disputes and even conflicts with Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and other countries.

There is no doubt that with the rise of East Africa, Egypt will only be worse off than in the past. After all, Egypt's military strength in the past was ranked first in Africa, and it had obvious advantages over the upper Nile countries.

A giant of this size in East Africa is obviously not something Egypt can challenge.

It's not just Egypt. East Africa's control over water sources can be seen from the geographical map of East Africa. For example, the upper reaches of the Shari River, which the South German Kingdom relied on, is also controlled within East Africa.

Of course, the South German Kingdom is not comparable to a pagan country like Egypt for East Africa, so East Africa will definitely not be as immoral to the South German Kingdom as it is to Egypt.

Among the countries that have water resources involved with East Africa, there are only two typical examples: Egypt and the southern German countries. In the future, there will also be Darfur, a country that was forcibly separated from Sudan by East Africa.

Other countries bordering East Africa either have no shortage of water or their water systems have little to do with East Africa. Take the Belgian Congo for example. Not only is there no shortage of water in the tropical rainforest climate, but there is actually an abundance of water. The British colony of South Africa is separated from East Africa by the Orange River, and its coastal areas also have abundant water resources.

(End of this chapter)