Chapter 1495 Project Site Selection
This really made William II guess half right. Otherwise, in the past life, Germany would not have had the so-called German Wehrmacht that did not collude with Adolf, was "pure as ice and jade", and had "high morals". All the bad things were done by Adolf and his private army.
Just like they quickly cut ties with William II and passed the buck after their defeat in World War I.
Only the Soviets saw the situation clearly, and later they de-Prussianized Germany and uprooted it completely. Therefore, even if Adolf had not been there, Germany would have gone to war under the impetus of the Junker Group.
This also fully proves one point: Russians understand Germany just like Germans understand Russia - they are too familiar with each other. This is similar to the two pairs of enemies, Britain and France, who can know what the other is going to say just by looking at one of them.
William II only guessed half right because he did not understand Adolf's character. Adolf was obviously not someone that the Junker Group could easily control, so he would never trust the German army as much as William II did. Therefore, he had a private army that was only loyal to him.
At the same time, Adolf did not attach much importance to personal interests, at least compared with his extreme "German nationalism", "militarism", "expansionism" and so on. Therefore, his interests were consistent with those of the Junker Group. He did not care whether the Junker Group made war profits or how much benefit it gained. He cared more about whether this force could help him realize Germany's dream of expansion.
The Junker Group, as a professional military and political group that made its fortune through military achievements and has an orderly inheritance, the army they control is indeed very capable in fighting.
…
Cabora Bassa Canyon.
In recent times, deafening explosions can always be heard in this river valley between central and eastern East Africa. This is the preliminary work for the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam in East Africa.
A group of East African water conservancy engineering experts discussed the construction of this grand project in a makeshift shed, amid the loud noise of explosives blasting rocks.
Browns, the chief designer of the Cabora Bassa Dam, held a detailed map with a coordinate system and talked to others about his ideas.
"At the beginning, the Ministry of Water Resources had two plans for the site selection of the Cahora Bassa Dam. One was Plan A, which focused on hydropower development, which is the standard point on the west side of the canyon on the map. Building a dam at this location would be less difficult and would save a lot of building materials."
"The site for Plan B is closer to the exit of the Cabora Bassa Gorge and close to the eastern coastal plain. Now, since we have to consider the transformation of the Zambezi River navigation, Plan B has become our only option."
The site of Plan A is the location of the previous Cahora Bassa Dam. It is an arch dam built with the help of the canyon terrain. It is led by the Portuguese government, but actually South African and French engineering companies are involved in the construction.
If the East African government only wants a giant reservoir and a large power station, then there is no doubt that this plan can fully meet the needs of the East African government without investing too much energy and financial resources.
However, East Africa is obviously not as petty as Portugal in the past. After all, Mozambique was just a colony for Portugal at that time. What they needed more was a project with relatively low investment and the ability to make profits quickly.
The East African government not only needs a reservoir and a dam, but also requires the construction of a giant lock to open up navigation in the middle and upper reaches of the Zambezi River.
Browns said, "Plan B is more conducive to the construction of supporting facilities such as ship locks. We plan to use this depression on the left side of the canyon as the ship lock construction area. This ship lock will be the largest ship lock ever built in the empire, so its foundation must be stable and firm, and sufficient space must be reserved."
East Africa has rich experience in lock construction, especially during the East African Canal project, when it accumulated numerous experiences and technological achievements and trained a large number of experienced professionals.
However, this is the first time that a lock of the scale of the Cahora Bassa Dam has been attempted in East Africa, and the only case that can be used as a reference in the world is the Panama Canal locks.
Of course, East African experts and engineers are obviously full of confidence in this task. After all, the construction of the Panama Canal dates back to the 1980s, that is, 1881. Now, it has been nearly 50 years, or half a century, since the construction of the Panama Canal began.
Especially during this half century, the Second Industrial Revolution broke out, and leapfrog development was achieved in theoretical basis, engineering technology, materials, etc.
This is coupled with a unique label for East Africa, which is that since the 20th century, East Africa has been the "largest infrastructure country" in this period. Whether it is railways, canals, roads, or urban construction, East Africa is the fastest-growing country. Its current infrastructure capabilities are undoubtedly ranked first in the world.
East Africa is a country with a land area of more than 10 million square kilometers and a population of nearly 200 million. It also has a suffocating industrial scale and infrastructure needs that are unimaginable in most countries in the world. The only country that can be compared with East Africa is the United States.
However, in the field of water conservancy projects, East Africa, a country with more complex terrain and climate, is clearly ahead of the United States in this field.
Browns said: "Although the Empire is the world's top superpower in infrastructure capacity, we cannot take this project lightly. Even the previous Renaissance Dam cannot be called a major project in front of the Cahora Bassa Dam."
"The Cahora Bassa Dam is not only to open up the Zambezi River for navigation, but also to significantly increase its navigation capacity and enable giant ships of 10,000 tons to pass through it. Therefore, its difficulty and engineering workload are unimaginable."
"The reservoir capacity of more than 70 billion cubic meters alone means that the material of the dam must be guaranteed to be able to withstand such huge water pressure."
In the previous life, the storage capacity of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir was about 63 billion cubic meters, and the storage capacity of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir built in East Africa will only be larger, because the site of the dam has changed this time, shifting about ten kilometers to the east and placed near the exit of the Cahora Bassa Canyon, which means that more land will be flooded.
However, East Africa does not need to migrate too many people this time, unlike the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. After the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the water level of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) rose significantly. However, the coast of the Great Lake is mostly cultivated land, villages and towns, and transportation routes, with a large population and great involvement.
As for the Cahora Bassa Gorge, just by hearing the name, you can tell that the nearby terrain is mostly mountainous, and it is a sparsely populated area in East Africa. Of course, even so, after the completion of the Cahora Bassa Dam, a large amount of land will be submerged, especially the western part of the future reservoir water storage area, which will submerge part of the plains and river valley areas.
Most of these lands have not been developed and there are even relatively few transportation lines, with only a few roads passing through. The reason for this is that as early as the last century, Ernst reserved land for the reservoir area.
After all, Ernst had plans to build the Kariba Dam and the Cahora Bassa Dam because of his experience in his previous life. As for why the Great Lakes region did not do so at the time, it was simply because Ernst forgot this. However, the coast of the Great Lakes region also played an important role in the primitive accumulation of East Africa in the early days. After all, it was one of the most fertile regions in East Africa.
There is no such concern for the Kariba Reservoir and the Cahora Bassa Reservoir. Due to terrain restrictions, these two areas are not suitable for large-scale agricultural and industrial construction.
In addition to the vast plains in the lower reaches of the Zambezi River, other towns in the Zambezi River basin in East Africa still have arable land, which is basically distributed on the many tributaries of the Zambezi River, like the East African capital of Rhineland, which relies on the Rensemfuwa River, and even a tributary of the Luangwa River, a tributary of the Zambezi River.
Therefore, the current construction of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir will not have too much negative impact on East Africa, and most of the areas that it will flood in the future remain undeveloped.
This area is nearly 3,000 square kilometers, which is larger than Luxembourg and almost the same size as Dongting Lake. Therefore, after the completion of this reservoir, there will be another large lake in East Africa.
However, the Kariba Dam, which East Africa is not planning to build at present, is even more exaggerated. Its area is even more than 5,000 square kilometers, which is larger than the Qinghai Lake in the Far East Empire. The fourth largest lake in East Africa, Lake Turkana, has an area of only more than 6,000 square kilometers.
Therefore, those who can participate in the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam are undoubtedly excited. If this project can be completed in their hands, it will push their resumes and personal achievements to a new peak. Unless East Africa plans to build the Kariba Reservoir in a short time, it will be difficult for latecomers to surpass this achievement.
Therefore, as the chief designer, Brauns could not tolerate any mistakes in this project, otherwise, not only would he not be successful, he might even be infamous for eternity.
He stressed: "The huge capacity of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir requires us not to make any mistakes, otherwise we will all become sinners in history. If the reservoir has accidents or even collapses in the future due to unqualified details, it will be a huge disaster for the downstream areas."
"Downstream of the dam is Tete City, which has a population of over one million. The plain area downstream of the Zambezi River is also a relatively densely populated area in the empire, with a large number of industrial facilities and farmland. Therefore, the quality of the project must be guaranteed and safety must be 100% guaranteed."
Tete is a large city in East Africa with a population of over one million. It is also the steel industry center of East Africa. It is less than 100 kilometers away from the site of the Cahora Bassa Dam and is located on the banks of the Zambezi River.
Therefore, the Cahora Bassa Reservoir is directly related to the life safety of one million people in Tete.
Of course, if the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam is completed, Tete will also be one of the biggest beneficiaries. For example, after the completion of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, it will be one of the largest hydropower stations in East Africa. It will reduce the electricity cost of Tete to a new level, thereby further enhancing the industrial advantages of Tete.
As for water resources, the Cahora Bassa Reservoir has a capacity of 70 billion cubic meters. Once it is filled, the industrial and agricultural water needs in the downstream plains will be fully supplied, and the long-standing flood problem in the lower plains of the Zambezi River and the estuary delta area during the rainy season will be greatly reduced.
In terms of transportation, after the completion of the Cahora Bassa Dam, Tete will no longer be the end point of Zambezi River shipping. It will open up connections with the middle reaches of the Zambezi River, strengthen the circulation of resources, expand the domestic market, and consolidate the status of Tete and Hinde as transportation hubs.
In summary, in the eyes of the East African government, the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam has many advantages, especially the long-term economic benefits it can bring and the balancing effect on the national and regional economies, etc. The most important beneficiaries are the cities of Tete and Hinde.
Therefore, the two places also support the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam. Of course, they are obviously also concerned about the huge artificial lake with an area of nearly 3,000 square kilometers above their heads. Therefore, during the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam, the governments of the two places also sent personnel to supervise the project to avoid cutting corners, unreasonable design and other problems.
Of course, these situations are almost impossible to exist. After all, the East African Central Government has been keeping an eye on this national project, and it is a landmark project during the country's Seventh and Even Eighth Five-Year Plans.
Browns said: "It is better to delay the construction of this dam than to rush ahead. Given East Africa's industrial and infrastructure capabilities, it may take at least ten years to build this dam."
"And ten years is just a conservative figure. East Africa's industrial capacity is now the best in the world. Our heavy equipment and machinery are at the world's leading level. If other countries come, it may take longer."
In fact, as long as the East African government is bold enough, it is fully capable of completing the construction of this project during the Seventh Five-Year Plan. After all, East Africa has a strong industry and no shortage of labor.
However, East Africa's development today has long passed the era of pursuing speed. For example, the national water conservancy projects in the last century and the subsequent construction of the Grand East African Canal are typical examples of such projects. After all, East Africa's economic and industrial capabilities were poor at the time, so it could only pursue "more, faster, better, and cheaper."
In addition, due to the weak technology, lack of talent, insufficient number of experienced workers and other problems in East Africa at that time, some projects in the past were easily prone to problems of varying sizes.
However, in the past, East Africa was vast and sparsely populated, and the project was not large in scale, so even if problems occurred, most of them could be salvaged, and those that could not be salvaged would not cause too much damage.
After all, compared with the Cahora Bassa Reservoir, a world-class artificial lake with an area of nearly 3,000 square kilometers and a storage capacity close to that of two Three Gorges Dams, all previous projects in East Africa cannot be compared with it. Once an accident occurs, it is likely to affect millions of people downstream.
Even the larger Fuxing Reservoir does not have such influence. After all, the population downstream of the Fuxing Reservoir is not that large, and the Fuxing Dam itself is not large. It only took advantage of the large lake to achieve the title of the world's first artificial reservoir.
Now, the East African governments have more issues to consider, especially human lives. In the past, East Africa had black laborers to use, and they didn't care even if it caused huge sacrifices. But now East Africa has no such substitutes, and the safety of the lives of its citizens has also been raised to a new level.
(End of this chapter)
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