African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1449: Chapter 19: East-to-West Water Diversion

How to develop water-saving agriculture is indeed a new challenge for East Africa today, as it is a new nationwide project without historical experience.

Ernst first emphasized: ”The essence of water-saving agriculture is to be guided by input-output efficiency, rather than saving for the sake of saving. After all, the fundamental purpose of developing water-saving agriculture is to enhance the utilization efficiency of water resources, thereby promoting agricultural production efficiency, rational use of water sources, and sustainably supporting agriculture, industry, society, and residential water use, which is our ultimate goal.”

Regarding this, the water resources department mentioned: ”Your Majesty, according to your instructions, we have formulated a roughly feasible plan, starting from the allocation of water sources as a point of departure to address the nationwide issue of water scarcity.”

”First, it must be clarified that East Africa is not a country lacking in fresh water resources; on the contrary, the Empire’s water resources are relatively abundant.”

”Therefore, the problem of national fresh water resources mainly manifests in the uneven temporal and spatial distribution. We plan to build a series of water diversion projects in the next ten years, focusing on the south, which is the main area of the Empire with water resource shortages and relatively tense industrial and agricultural water use.”

”We will use Oran Province, Baden Province, and Heixinggen Province as the pioneering experimental areas to construct large-scale water diversion projects.”

The scope of Oran Province, Baden Province, and Heixinggen Province roughly encompasses the area where former South Africa and Botswana intersect, the edge of the Kalahari Desert and the northern part of the South African Plateau.

Here, the annual precipitation gradually transitions from 200 mm in the west to 800 mm in the east, most areas receiving less than 600 mm.

Areas with precipitation below 200 mm are known as arid zones, simply understood as desert regions, it is almost impossible to transform them into habitable places through artificial modification.

Even areas receiving more than 200 mm are insufficient; in the past, major cities of the Far East Empire like Xining, Lanzhou, and Yinchuan received annual precipitation around 200 mm.

From the development of these cities, it’s clear they couldn’t rely on that paltry rainfall to support the lives of millions of people and the development of industry and agriculture.

These cities mostly developed relying on river water supplementation, and that river is the Yellow River.

The experimental areas for the water diversion projects defined by the Ministry of Water Resources actually have slightly better conditions than those regions of the Far East Empire, as the precipitation in these areas is above 200 mm, even reaching more than 800 mm further east.

The coverage area is about 300,000 square kilometers, meaning from the 800 mm rainfall line to the 200 mm rainfall line, all falls within this ”narrow” area.

The use of the term ”narrow” mainly contrasts with the Far East Empire; the 800 mm rainfall line of the Far East Empire is roughly at the Qinling-Huai River line, while the 200 mm rainfall line is in Inner Mongolia, Helan Mountain, Qilian Mountain, and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau areas.

The range between these two rainfall lines is much larger than the southern region of East Africa.

Yards, Minister of Water Resources, stated: ”The reason southern regions have relatively scarce precipitation mainly arises from the Drakensberg Mountains blocking Indian Ocean moisture.”

”Actually, east of the Drakensberg Mountains in Hansa Province and Pingyuan Province, precipitation isn’t lacking, instead often affected by flooding disasters.”

”The primary river in the south, Orange River, originates from the Drakensberg Mountains, which is greatly advantageous for our east-to-west water diversion.”

Though Orange River is the border river between East Africa and South Africa (British Colony), the main upstream and tributaries mostly disperse like tree branches within East African territory or border areas.

Moreover, Orange River flows from east to west, which is tremendously favorable to East Africa.

After all, the river flows further west into East Africa’s arid regions, reaching the Namib Desert to the sea.

Without the Orange River, for the already arid southern region of East Africa, unimaginable hardship would ensue.

Yards continued: ”We can utilize the Orange River to achieve east-to-west water transfer within the area at a relatively low cost.”

”Thus, we can open up more farmland and pastures in the south, making it a globally premium agricultural and pasture zone.”

”Water source is the sole major obstacle limiting the development of southern provinces, solving this issue will make the south one of East Africa’s most developed industrial and agricultural regions.”

As early as the fourth and fifth periods, the East African Government had envisioned the future development of the southern and Great Lakes Regions, though during the fourth and fifth periods, the East African Government primarily invested towards the Great Lakes Region.

The reason is simple, the Great Lakes Region has a larger population, better agricultural foundation, abundant water resources, and plays a crucial role in integrating East African northern economic development.

East Africa’s north has vast areas, yet due to various reasons, it’s economically depressed, so East Africa’s urgency in developing the Great Lakes Region surpasses that of the south.

As for the south, including the southwest, actually it’s not small in area, yet the southwest’s status in East Africa is clear; it’s unlikely to see significant development in the future, essentially relying on mineral sales for livelihood.

Besides mineral resources, the southwest’s climate is too harsh, akin to the Congo Rainforest Reserve.

Including the southwest, only six southern provinces are administratively defined in East Africa, while the north consists of over a dozen provinces.