Chapter 1411 Engineering Construction
All industrial countries today will suffer the same fate as France in the future, which is the problem of a declining birth rate. As the birth rate declines, it will inevitably require the introduction of population from abroad and at the same time face the problem of illegal immigration.
It can be said that these two formed an organic combination in the previous life. Developed countries have a demand for labor, and people in backward areas also want to squeeze into developed countries.
Ernst does not believe that East Africa will be able to escape this common situation in the future, so it is better to make arrangements in advance and isolate the Arab countries or regions around East Africa.
The best way to isolate is to support a puppet state with similar culture and living habits. In this way, even if people from neighboring countries and regions in East Africa come to East Africa in the future, the cost for the future East African government to assimilate them will be minimal.
After all, past experience has proven that two groups with too great a difference in culture or thinking are unlikely to pee in the same pot. There is an old saying in the Far East that "those who are not of my ethnicity must have different hearts."
When East Africa was carrying out ethnic integration, it was particularly taboo about the formation of so-called "communities". This situation is more common in the United States, such as Chinatown, German communities, black communities, etc.
In summary, East Africa's policies on dealing with immigration issues are significantly different from those of Europe and the United States, but the results are also very significant. Today, a Rhine nation with a population of nearly 200 million and a universal common understanding has been formed on the African continent, and East Africa's social cohesion is also greater than those immigration countries in Latin America.
The poor Sudanese people do not know yet that their fate has been decided by the "devil" Ernst.
Most Sudanese people have to consider whether they can have a meal tomorrow. So even if the White Nile is filled with sewage and oil from upstream, the Saydli family can only hold their noses and divert the river water into the fields to irrigate their wheat fields.
Although the water of the White Nile has been polluted to a certain extent, using it to irrigate farmland does not actually have a big impact on the growth of crops. After all, the sewage discharged by a small city has a negligible impact on the White Nile.
In the past, Cairo, Egypt, had a population of more than 20 million. It was also home to most of Egypt’s industries and was located in the lower reaches of the Nile River. One can imagine the condition of the Nile River in Cairo. Therefore, the “little” pollution caused by the city of Gezira was just a drop in the bucket for the White Nile.
This is not aimless. In fact, no matter how much trouble East Africa causes, it is impossible to cause a devastating blow to the ecology of the White Nile, unless the population of the White Nile River basin in the upper reaches of East Africa exceeds 100 million and water is used without restraint, which may result in not a drop of water flowing into Sudan.
This is not an unfounded statement. The water volume of the Nile River is less than twice that of the Yellow River, and the water volume of the White Nile, as a tributary, is even less. However, the Nile Province in East Africa has a total population of less than two million and an area of more than 500,000 square kilometers. The degree of sparse population is simply outrageous.
Therefore, unless East Africa can change the course of the White Nile, it will not have much impact on the downstream, not to mention that Egypt also has rivers such as the Blue Nile to replenish the water volume of the Nile.
Of course, if you ask Ernst to drink the water from the White Nile in Sudan, he definitely won't drink it.
In fact, the precipitation in the Nile Province of East Africa is still considerable, and even in the south the average annual precipitation exceeds one thousand millimeters.
However, the evaporation is also very large. After all, the Nile River basin has a low altitude, high temperature, dense vegetation, and many swamps, so most of the precipitation is consumed in East Africa. If not, the amount of water in the Nile River would definitely not be so pitifully small compared to other major rivers in the world.
However, even so, East Africa's activities upstream, especially the establishment of the city of Gezira, still have a great impact on the White Nile in Sudan. The White Nile in Sudan is only about 300 kilometers long and the water volume is not high.
Therefore, the impact of the city of Gezira, which is just about 300 kilometers away from Khartoum, on the 300 kilometers downstream of the White Nile River is enough to make Sudan uncomfortable.
Khartoum does not feel this deeply because it is the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. As long as the Blue Nile is not affected too much, Khartoum will basically not have any major problems.
Only Sudanese like the Saydeli family, who make their living on the White Nile, would complain about East Africa's behavior, but that's all they can do.
…
In fact, for Egypt, a North African country, having the Nile River flowing through it is already a gift from God. The Nile River alone is enough to make neighboring North African countries such as Libya and Algeria, which are also short of water, envious.
Compared with these countries, the "water shortage" problem that East Africa has been promoting seems insignificant. East Africa only has slightly less precipitation than most high-latitude countries.
But even so, East Africa has made many efforts to make rational use of water resources, such as large-scale water conservancy construction in the last century and the construction of artificial canals and reservoirs at the beginning of this century.
During the Fifth Five-Year Plan, the focus of East Africa's water conservancy construction was undoubtedly "water diversion projects" and hydropower station construction.
While conducting research in the Northern Great Lakes Province, Ernst also visited the northeastern part of the province and inspected the construction of the western water diversion project in the Sadindida Plain.
After returning to Rhine City, Ernst called the Ministry of Water Resources and other relevant departments to inquire about the current progress of water conservancy work in East Africa.
"Just three days ago, I just came back from the Northern Great Lakes Province, where I paid special attention to the Xingguo Hydropower Station in Jinga City and the construction of the western water diversion project in the Sadindida Plain in the northeastern part of the Northern Great Lakes Province."
"Nowadays, there are many regional water diversion projects in my country's water conservancy construction field. Your Ministry of Water Resources should report the specific situation of these projects truthfully."
In response to Ernst's inquiry, Morbach, the current Minister of Water Resources of East Africa, said: "Your Majesty, there are a total of four large-scale water diversion projects in my country. From north to south, they are the Sadindida Plain Water Diversion Project, the East African Plateau West Water East Diversion Project, the Mozambique North Water South Diversion Project, and the South African Plateau East Water West Diversion Project."
"However, at the current stage, the only concrete projects being implemented are the Sadindida Plain Water Diversion Project and the South African Plateau East-West Water Diversion Project."
"These two projects are the least difficult and have the least negative impact on the ecological environment. Among them, the South African Plateau East-West Water Diversion Project is one of the projects that the Ministry of Water Resources currently attaches the most importance to."
"We have completed the exploration and measurement of the route. The next step is to formally invite top national experts in water conservancy, ecological environment, engineering and other fields to formulate the most reasonable plan. It is expected that construction will officially start by the end of next year."
The reason why the Ministry of Water Resources puts the East-to-West Water Diversion Project at the top of the list is that the project is one of the most important large-scale national construction projects in the Fifth Five-Year Plan.
After all, the South African plateau is East Africa's energy and mineral base, and it is also an important agricultural production base in East Africa. After the completion of this project, it will have the greatest effect on enhancing East Africa's national strength.
Ernst was also aware of this. Compared with other water diversion projects, only the East-to-West Water Diversion Project in the South African Plateau involved industrial development in the South African plateau region, while several other water diversion projects focused on serving agriculture.
So he said: "Regarding the East-West Water Diversion Project in the South African Plateau, you should not rush for success. If there are any problems, you should not take it lightly. After all, the fundamental purpose of this large-scale water conservancy construction project is to lay a good foundation for the overall economic development of the country."
"So, you don't have to rush into construction during the 5th Five-Year Plan. This project can be completed within ten or even twenty years. Everything should be done in a safe way."
The construction period of such large-scale water diversion projects is usually more than ten years. Of course, this is generally the case. In fact, after entering the 20th century, East Africa's industrial level has improved and its large-scale engineering construction capabilities have also advanced by leaps and bounds.
Moreover, after experiencing various miraculous large-scale engineering projects in the planned economy era, some East African officials have become frivolous.
Ernst could understand this mentality of some officials. After all, whether it was national water conservancy construction, artificial canal construction, or large-scale infrastructure projects such as railways, roads, bridges, and ports, the East African government basically achieved these amazing achievements as expected.
However, from the last century to the beginning of this century, one prominent feature of the completion of these projects in East Africa was the pursuit of "speed".
As for why this was the case, it had to do with Ernst's requirements under the historical circumstances at the time.
You have to know that before Ernst colonized East Africa, the entire country of East Africa could almost be called "virgin land". There was not even a decent road, and the climate and environment were relatively harsh.
At that time, the international environment and situation facing East Africa were not optimistic. It was surrounded by wolves, and imperialism was preparing to launch a wave of dividing up the African continent.
This also means that if the colonial activities in East Africa cannot be quickly transformed into strength, then all the efforts made by the Hechingen royal family at that time would probably only be a wedding dress for the powerful countries at that time.
Therefore, before the South African War, the mission of the Hechingen royal family was to "quickly occupy, quickly immigrate, quickly develop, and quickly build."
Turn the East African colonies into the family's own private territory and have the ability to preserve the colonial achievements amid competition and threats from the great powers.
Before the 1880s, we must have a certain population size, agricultural and industrial base on the African continent, and even build a strong army to deal with the threats from other colonists.
This led to the pursuit of "speed" in any early project in East Africa, mainly in the two aspects of war and agricultural construction.
After the 1980s, East Africa had already acquired a certain degree of self-defense capability and had even built itself into a country of a certain size. However, East Africa still could not relax at this time.
Because at this time, European powers also officially began to pour into Africa on a large scale. Therefore, after two or three decades of accumulation and development, East Africa began to have direct conflicts with the powerful countries for the first time.
East Africa's main opponents at the time were Portugal and Britain, which directly triggered the South African War in the early 1990s. Through this war, East Africa also established its position in Africa.
The South African War did not mean the end of East Africa's development. At this time, East Africa, as a regional power of a certain scale, began to participate in international competition.
The most important thing was to compete with other countries in the world in the field of industrial development. After all, if you lag behind, you will be beaten. At that time, East Africa was still a backward agricultural country.
This means that East Africa still faces the crisis of the resurgence of imperialist countries.
Just like Egypt's brief rise in modern times under Ali's reforms, Egypt achieved a certain degree of "enriching the country and strengthening the military" through a series of reforms, but the specific effect still did not get rid of the limitations of a "backward agricultural country". After Britain and France returned to Egypt, Ali's reforms were officially declared a failure.
East Africa also faced such a problem in the early 1990s. Agricultural countries have no advantage over industrial countries. Even if they win temporarily, they will most likely fail later. This is mainly a problem of tolerance. The tolerance of industrial countries is much higher than that of agricultural countries.
Take the South African War for example. The victory in East Africa only brought a period of peace, but Britain, as the loser, was hardly affected. If East Africa had rested on its laurels and stopped developing, it would have inevitably faced new crises in the future.
Therefore, after the 1990s, transforming East Africa from an agricultural country into a world industrial power in the shortest possible time became the primary political task of the East African government at that stage.
After the 1990s, the progress of East Africa's engineering construction was even more exaggerated than before. In just 30 years, East Africa built more than 200,000 kilometers of railways, millions of kilometers of roads, and renovated a large number of modern ports. The steel production reached a new level every year...
It can be said that World War I and East Africa before World War I created one miracle after another in the economic and engineering fields, thus completely laying the foundation for East Africa to become a world power.
But behind these economic miracles, one thing cannot be ignored, that is, in order to get rid of the current situation of poverty and backwardness as much as possible, East Africa has also made great sacrifices, and the blind pursuit of speed in construction has also laid hidden dangers.
In summary, the rough economic development model of East Africa in the past no longer conforms to the actual situation of East African countries today.
After becoming a primary industrial power, East Africa also faces various problems such as "rising labor costs", "overcapacity in the world's industry", "tariff barriers of various countries", "lack of product competitiveness", "low level of science and technology", etc. Therefore, the transformation of East Africa's economic development began with the Fifth Five-Year Plan.
In the field of engineering construction, East Africa used to blindly pursue progress, thus ignoring worker safety, ecological impacts, unscientific designs and other issues. This is certainly no longer acceptable now.
To put it simply, in the past, East Africa did not take human life seriously for the sake of economic development. However, in the past, East Africa had black laborers who could be sacrificed. Now, it certainly cannot joke about the lives and safety of its own citizens.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com