African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1240: Chapter 249: The Devious Nile River Strategy

The Xingguo Reservoir and the accompanying Xingguo Dam can also be seen as a hallmark of East Africa during the four-five period, as water infrastructure construction, especially hydroelectric dam construction, is easy to go down in history.

For instance, the Hoover Dam in the United States, the Dnieper River Hydroelectric Power Station in the Soviet Union, the Three Gorges Dam in the Far East Empire, and the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Station in Brazil and Paraguay.

Although the construction difficulty of the Xingguo Hydroelectric Power Station is not comparable to these water infrastructure projects, its acquisition of the world’s largest reservoir—the Xingguo Reservoir—through clever strategies has destined its future global reputation.

Of course, the East African construction of the Xingguo Hydroelectric Power Station is not simply for fame, but has profound strategic considerations.

The most crucial of which is water resources, with the construction of the Xingguo Reservoir equating to an additional two hundred billion cubic meters of available freshwater resources for East Africa.

This water would originally flow into the Nile River, eventually entering the Mediterranean through the sections in the Sultanate and Egypt.

As is well known, the Nile River, being the world’s longest river, does not have abundant water; its annual runoff totals just over eight hundred billion cubic meters, while the Yellow River, with less water in the Far East Empire, has an annual runoff of over five hundred billion cubic meters.

Therefore, the entire Nile River basin experiences a shortage of water resources, and even this limited water is divided among Egypt (including the Sultanate), the Abyssinia Empire (Ethiopia), and the Three Kingdoms in East Africa.

Moreover, the flow of the White Nile River through East Africa has always been relatively low, so securing more water resources is imperative, considering the significant water demands within the Nile River basin and the North Lake Province in East Africa.

The Xingguo Hydroelectric Power Station is merely a vital node in East Africa’s strategic plan regarding the Nile River. Downstream, East Africa will incrementally build water interception facilities to maximize the efficiency of water usage along the East Africa stretch of the Nile River.

Alongside the Xingguo Hydroelectric Power Station, numerous projects such as the Jezira City Dam and the Kagela Hydroelectric Station are being launched, with over twenty projects from the source to the East African border, ensuring the optimal arrangement of the Nile River within East Africa.

The survival of downstream Egypt is not East Africa’s concern, even though the Nile section within Egypt, including the Sultanate, is primarily sourced from the Blue Nile River.

However, one cannot ignore the importance of the White Nile River, which during the Nile River’s dry season contributes over eighty percent to the river’s main and tributary flow downstream.

This indicates that if East Africa’s ”Nile River Strategic Plan” is completed, Egypt and the Sultanate will face more severe water scarcity during the dry season.

Of course, East Africa has left Egypt a pathway for survival, as it is unrealistic for East Africa to prevent all water from flowing into Egypt, and during this period Egypt’s population’s water demand is far below that of the previous world.

Currently, Egypt’s population totals just over ten million, even counting the population in the Sultanate region, while the previous world saw an Egyptian population exceeding a hundred million and nearly fifty million in the Sultanate, totaling one hundred fifty million in both countries.

This means the current Egyptian population is about one-fifteenth of Egypt’s population in the 21st century of the previous world, resulting in much lower water resource requirements.

Upon the completion of East Africa’s ”Nile River Strategic Plan,” there will be enormous pressure on future Egyptian (Sultanate) agriculture, domestic life, and industrial water use.

Agricultural water can be supplied by the Blue Nile River, but industrial and domestic water cannot be so easily adjusted, given that Egyptians cannot reduce water usage or halt factory operations during the Nile River’s dry season.

If Egypt follows the path of rapid population growth like in the previous world, there is no doubt that future living conditions in Egypt would be even poorer.

This aligns perfectly with Ernst’s interests, as Ernst does not want Egypt in this timeline to grow as rapidly as in the previous world, considering the stark differences between Egypt and East Africa in terms of belief and ethnicity, and the fact that the two countries share a border.

In the previous world, Egypt was one of the main sources of refugees for Europe, and Ernst does not want Egyptians to follow the Nile River into East Africa, even though most of the border region between Egypt and East Africa is desert. This climatic barrier isn’t completely reliable, after all, Europe and Egypt still have the Mediterranean between them!

Therefore, Ernst leaves future Egyptians with only one path: to control their population growth rate; otherwise, Egypt’s future situation will be even more dire than in the previous world.

This tactic is also learned from the previous world’s Americans, where the Colorado River’s upstream is in the United States and its estuary in Mexico. The previous world’s United States retained most of the Colorado River’s water, leaving Mexico only about ten percent, using the retained water for its own industrial and agricultural purposes. Part of California’s water supply comes from this.

East Africa’s ”Nile River Strategic Plan” is a replica of the previous world’s Americans’ approach.

This self-serving action also presents clear benefits to East Africa. Firstly, these water facilities can provide East Africa with ample electricity, supporting the development of surrounding cities.

For instance, the Xingguo Hydroelectric Power Station under construction in Jinga City will provide the city with abundant cheap electricity resources upon completion, supporting the city’s industrial growth, which is the primary reason for Jinga City’s urban expansion nowadays.

Secondly, the additional two hundred billion cubic meters of freshwater resources can ensure plentiful water supply near the Nile River’s main stream within East Africa, safeguarding downstream water security, especially significant for East Africa’s Nile River Province.

Although East Africa’s development intensity in the Nile River Province is weaker, it does not imply that the province is unimportant to East Africa. The agricultural conditions are favorable, allowing for the establishment of numerous farms and plantations, which heavily depend on the Nile’s water resources.

Downstream, the desert region represented by Jezira City is even more dependent on the Nile’s water resources; Jezira City’s wheat and cotton are quite famous in East Africa, and the local industry is notable, with all these being high water-consuming activities.

Meanwhile, the construction of this batch of water projects will significantly improve East African inland Nile River basin navigation conditions, and ensuring stable water flow within East Africa naturally requires intercepting more water.

In fact, East Africa’s ”Nile River Strategic Plan” involves intercepting far more than the two hundred billion cubic meters of the Xingguo Reservoir, including numerous tributaries’ water supplies in the downstream Nile River Province.

Actually, the Great Lakes Region where the Xingguo Reservoir is located doesn’t lack water, and the rainfall in the southern part of the Nile River Province is substantial, but the distribution of rainfall seasons in East Africa is uneven.

Moreover, being situated in the tropics, East Africa has high evaporation rates, which is a primary reason for the relatively low water flow in the White Nile River.

Before even reaching Egypt, the White Nile River loses a significant amount of water naturally, with even less left as it passes from the Sultanate to Egypt’s core regions.

This situation is prevalent across East Africa, especially in the transitional areas between tropical savanna climates and tropical desert climates, such as the transition zone between the East African Plateau and the Somali desert, the junction of the Central Bohemian Province (northern Zimbabwe) with the Kalahari Basin, or the confluence of East Africa’s West Coast in Angola and Namibia.

Fortunately, these regions are within East African territory, so when East Africa constructs water facilities and allocates water resources, it will fully consider local ecology, people’s livelihood, and industrial and agricultural development.

However, the Nile River basin is entirely different, as unfortunately the downstream is not East African territory, and the survival of the Egyptians is clearly not within East Africa’s scope of concern.

Egypt’s future has only two paths: stabilizing the Abyssinia Empire to ensure consistent Blue Nile water supply and maintaining a slow population growth rate.

If these conditions are not met, Egypt can only follow the previous world’s example of flowing into European countries for survival.

In any case, Ernst does not intend to play the role of the ”good Samaritan” like Europe, as even if East Africa intends to receive immigrants in the future, they may be drawn from national colonies or Europe, or the Far East Empire. East Africa’s current overseas expansion is, in fact, creating living space for the Rhine people, a new ethnicity actively promoted by East Africa.