Chapter 1496 Transportation Industry
With a team composed of top water conservancy engineering experts in East Africa such as Browns, the design and construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam has the most basic guarantee. This national strategic project, which directly concerns the safety of millions of people, obviously cannot be built only by relying on the past "big force and flying bricks" model.
While the expert group was discussing in the shed, the sound of explosions could be heard from time to time outside the house coming from the distant canyon. The East African engineering corps was in charge of the engineering blasting. In addition to clearing the foundation for the construction of dams and locks, they also had to cut through the mountains to open roads.
The Cabora Bassa Gorge, a scar on the land of East Africa, grows wildly on the ancient East African Shield. It is a magnificent natural wonder created by the Zambezi River tearing down the hard rock layers of the plateau for hundreds of millions of years.
To some extent, it can be said that the Zambezi River, by its own power, divides a huge plateau on the African continent into two parts, but strictly speaking, it cannot be regarded as a plateau dividing line. It is just a natural large river, and it passes through many plateau rift valleys. For the sake of convenience, the East African government uses it as the natural boundary of many East African geographical units.
The Cahora Bassa Gorge is part of the Zambezi River Valley, which is an important reason why East Africa could not fully develop the coast of the Zambezi River in the past. Currently, only the alluvial plains in the lower reaches and the estuary delta have been developed into important industrial and agricultural areas in East Africa.
However, after the water storage of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir is completed, a large amount of usable land around the reservoir area can theoretically be developed into arable land. Of course, according to the plan of the East African government, this is not intended to be done, but the reservoir area will be mainly used for ecological purposes.
A giant artificial lake like the Cahora Bassa Reservoir may take years just to fill up with water, and the bulk of the economic benefits still come from downstream areas.
For example, in Tete, after the completion of the reservoir, water use indicators will be significantly improved. Whether it is developing new arable land or setting up more industries, it will no longer be constrained by water resources. Not to mention the huge amount of electricity generated by the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, which will also promote the further development of Tete's industry.
From this point of view, Tete's position in East African industrial cities will be further strengthened in the future, and it is expected to surpass old heavy industrial base cities such as Harare, and its position will be difficult to be shaken by other cities in the future.
…
Rhine City.
Crown Prince Friedrich is reporting to Ernst on the construction progress of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station.
"The construction of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station has entered the implementation phase. This project alone will directly involve more than 50,000 workers, and will drive the development of industries such as cement and steel, absorb a large amount of industrial capacity, and effectively alleviate the unemployment problem caused by the current economic crisis."
"The city of Tete itself is the center of the empire's steel industry. If this project is put into operation, the economy of Tete will not only be able to stabilize in the next few years, but may even grow against the trend."
After listening to Friedrich's words, Ernst said with a smile: "The Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station has not yet been completed, but Tete has already reaped the benefits of this project in advance."
"In the future, Tete City will most likely become one of the most important cities in the empire, and one of the few large inland cities that can compete with coastal cities."
"After the transformation of the Zambezi River mainstream is completed, coupled with the navigable plans for the Kafue River, the Hunyani River, the Shire River and other rivers, the economic hinterland of Tete will also be expanded, and eventually an economic belt along the Zambezi River from Jinde to Tete and then to Lusaka and other regions will be formed. This may also be the first national river-dominated economic belt in East Africa."
Previously, the economy of East Africa was not affected by rivers as much as by railways and roads. There was only one large city along the banks of a large river, Tete. Of course, the large rivers here refer to the main streams of large rivers such as the Nile River, the Congo River, the Zambezi River, and the Orange River, which are more than 2,000 kilometers long. The population of large cities in East Africa must be at least over one million.
Therefore, Tete is the only city that meets these two stringent conditions. Other large cities are either located on the coast, or distributed along the tributaries of large rivers or small and medium-sized rivers, or on lake shores.
There is no need to explain much about the coastal cities. The latter two, for example, Rhine City is on the tributary of the Zambezi River, and Mbeya is on the shores of Lake Malawi.
Kinshasa and Kissan on the banks of the Congo River are both medium-sized cities, while the Nile and Orange Rivers are even worse. Excluding the Great Lakes region of the Nile River, the most developed cities along the coast are Juba and Gezira, both of which are small cities with a population of 200,000 to 300,000. Kimberley and Upington, the largest cities along the main stream of the Orange River, are similar.
Friedrich agreed with this assessment and added: "In addition to Tete, the development potential of Hindé will also be greatly enhanced. If managed properly, it may become the New Orleans of East Africa."
New Orleans is an important port city in the United States, located at the mouth of the Mississippi River. This is Friedrich's vision for the future of Hindley.
As for the Rhine River and the Yangtze River, the Zambezi River has no chance of competing with them. The natural and cultural conditions of the two rivers are simply not comparable to those of the Zambezi River.
The Mississippi River is different. Although the natural conditions of the Mississippi River are much better than those of the Zambezi River, the focus of the U.S. economy is not in the Mississippi River basin, and its estuary is in the Gulf of Mexico, rather than directly facing the Atlantic Ocean and Europe. These factors have restricted the development of the Mississippi River shipping industry.
Although the natural conditions of the Zambezi River are not excellent, it can connect the economies of central East Africa and the coast, which is an advantage that the Mississippi River does not have.
The Rhine and Yangtze Rivers not only have excellent navigation conditions, but their coastal areas are also densely populated and economically developed. Therefore, it is difficult for the Mississippi and Zambezi rivers to compete with these two rivers.
Finally, there is the Danube River. The Danube’s navigability is not bad, but unfortunately its estuary is in the Black Sea, and no country has yet effectively integrated this river. This is mainly the responsibility of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Ernst said: "The transformation of the Zambezi River is a long-term task. It will be difficult to complete without 20 to 30 years. And this is still a relatively optimistic forecast. It may take until the end of this century for us to completely conquer this great river in East Africa. I probably won't be able to wait until that day."
"However, this effort is worth it. As long as the Zambezi River can be opened for shipping, East Africa will surely be able to maintain its status as a great power in the future as long as the shipping advantage does not disappear."
"For example, the Soviet Union's economy was highly dependent on railways, but with the development of the times, the transportation costs of railways will eventually be unable to compete with water transportation."
In this era, due to the high cost of freight transshipment, the difference between rail transportation costs and water transportation is not large. However, this situation has begun to change in East Africa. With the promotion of containers and the improvement of port facilities, the operating efficiency of ports has been greatly improved and the number of dock workers has been reduced. Therefore, the advantages of water transportation over railways have become more and more obvious.
Of course, even if the East African country can make full use of the Zambezi River shipping in the future, railways will always occupy an important position. After all, the rivers in East Africa are inherently too poor, at least compared with Europe, America and the Far East empire.
Especially in areas such as the north, south, northeast and southwest of East Africa where precipitation and rivers are relatively scarce, the importance of land transportation will basically not be affected.
When talking about the development of inland shipping, Ernst naturally shifted the topic to transportation such as railways, roads and aviation.
"In terms of railways, the development direction of East Africa's railways is electrification. This project is also difficult, especially in terms of power generation and power grid requirements. Although East Africa is the world's largest power country, the development of the power industry is still in a relatively early stage."
“The great development of the power industry may last until the end of this century. Therefore, we in East Africa must not give up investment in this area.”
The development of the power industry in Ernst's previous life can be roughly divided into five stages. The first was the exploration and initial application stage, which took place mainly in the mid-to-late 19th century.
Then came the first electric revolution, which lasted from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. It was marked by the emergence of large-scale power grids and large-scale industrial applications, breakthroughs in high-voltage transmission technology, the emergence of regional power grids in the United States, Germany and other countries, the application of electricity in industrial production, electric motors replacing steam engines, and so on.
The second electricity revolution lasted from roughly the 1930s to the 1970s and was characterized by the formation of national power grids and diversification of energy sources, the rapid popularization and promotion of electricity in most parts of the world, and the emergence of new power generation technologies such as nuclear power.
The third electricity revolution, which took place from the late 20th century to the early 21st century, was marked by the marketization of electricity and the transition to clean energy.
Finally, there is the energy transformation of various countries under the background of carbon neutrality. The development of electricity in the Far East Empire during this period is the most representative.
At present, East Africa is in the initial stage of the second electricity revolution, that is, the national power grid is taking shape rapidly, the power generation structure is developing towards diversification, and traditional power generation technologies such as thermal power and hydropower have made breakthroughs. East Africa is ahead of most countries in the world.
Of course, the standards of the previous life do not fully conform to the current development of the East African power industry. The world's power industry itself is extremely unbalanced. Even in the 21st century, when countries around the world were in the transition stage towards the goal of carbon neutrality, the development differences among countries were huge. Even in regions such as the African continent, electricity was not fully popularized.
However, it is undeniable that there is a lot of room for growth in the power industry and East Africa still has great potential to tap in this field.
Ernst went on to say, "In terms of highways, expressways will be the main direction that the Empire will focus on in the future, further improving inland logistics capabilities and increasing the efficiency of highway transportation."
In fact, East Africa's road system is now quite complete, and even the road construction in rural areas has reached the world's leading level. However, East Africa has never built a real highway.
The world's first modern highway appeared in Italy in 1924 and was built and operated by a private company. Currently, there are also construction plans in Germany and East Africa. However, a large-scale highway network may first appear in East Africa in the future.
Although Italy was the first to try it, it does not have the ability to promote it on a large scale at this stage. After all, the number of cars in Italy is difficult to support the promotion of highways. East Africa is the world's largest automobile industry country, and market demand in related fields has already appeared.
Previously, Ernst was not in a hurry to build the highway, mainly to facilitate the "work-for-relief" when the economic crisis came, so he postponed the construction plan of the East African highway and let Italy take the first place. Therefore, during the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, the construction of highways in the East African transportation field will be one of the highlights in the transportation field.
However, whether it is inland water transportation, railways or roads, East Africa has upgraded and improved them. Even East Africa's most backward inland water transportation was once promoted by the East African Canal project. Not to mention railways and roads, which are basically at the world's leading level. The construction of the aviation industry is the new content of the Seventh Five-Year Plan.
Ernst said: "Finally, aviation. Today, advances in aircraft manufacturing technology have made great progress in aircraft performance and safety, and they can now be promoted on a large scale."
"Especially for the southwest and northwest regions, which are sparsely populated and not suitable for other modes of transportation, the emergence of the aviation industry fills the gap in our transportation in these areas."
The southwestern region, which is Namibia and the Kalahari Basin, covers an area of more than one million square kilometers, but most of it is desert and sparsely populated.
This means that neither roads nor railways are suitable for development here, and as for shipping, there are no conditions for its development at all.
"In the past, it was very difficult to transport supplies to southwestern cities such as Oranjemund due to traffic restrictions. Coastal cities like Oranjemund were not so bad, but some inland towns and strongholds could only transport supplies by foot or camel."
"The emergence of airplanes can solve this problem very well, and there is no shortage of land in these places, so airport construction is very cost-effective."
East Africa's investment in the southwest region has always been insufficient to cover its expenditures, but it cannot invest. This is mainly aimed at the British colony of South Africa. Although the Orange River is the boundary river between the two countries, the climate conditions and transportation in South Africa are much better than those in East Africa. Therefore, for the sake of national defense and security, East Africa has always wanted to strengthen its control over the southwest region.
Apart from a few sparse railways and highways, the only means of transportation in the southwest region is sea transportation. However, sea transportation can only solve the material problems of coastal towns. There are many inland strongholds that are not reachable by railways and highways. Therefore, the emergence of the aviation industry has become the best solution.
Ernst said: "For the southwestern region, which is in the most urgent need of aviation development, it is also a test area for the development of the imperial aviation industry and the starting point of the imperial aviation industry."
After all, Ernst was unsure about the performance and safety of current aircraft. This is also the idea of most people in the world today. At least Ernst himself did not dare to take a plane in this era.
In this way, the southwest region, which has the greatest demand for the aviation industry, has become the best area for experimental development of the aviation industry in East Africa. Even if an air crash really occurs, there is no need to worry about the plane falling and hitting the town. After all, the population of the entire southwest region is not large. Once the aviation industry in the southwest region is fully developed, the resistance to promoting it throughout the empire can be minimized.
Ernst told Friedrich: "In the future, aviation will become the fourth most important mode of transportation, on par with railways, roads and water transport. It also means a huge market. We must maintain our advantage over other countries in the aviation industry."
(End of this chapter)
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