African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 895 The Second National Water Conservancy Project

 As the number one energy source in the world and the number one energy source in East Africa, coal’s dominance remains unshakable.

After the annexation of Angola and Mozambique, East Africa's coal reserves have further increased, especially in Tete City, Mozambique, which is an important coal-producing area and is close to the Central Industrial Zone and the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone. The industrial area is the area with the highest concentration of heavy industry in East Africa, so it is self-evident why the railway along the Zambia River, that is, the railway from Quelimane to New Frankfurt, is being built through Tete.

Comparing to other large countries in the world, the coal reserves in East Africa are relatively small. Tsarist Russia, the United States, the Far Eastern Empire, and the United Kingdom (Canada, Australia, and India) are all major coal countries. Only Brazil has less.

 However, the quality of East African coal is very impressive in the world, and the impact of coal quality on the industrial field is also very huge.

For example, the "Thomas Steelmaking Method" that allowed Germany to surpass the UK in steel production capacity is to improve coal utilization through technical means.

In 1877, the British Thomas and Gilchrist invented the Thomas Steelmaking Method. However, the iron ore in Germany and the Alsace and Lorraine regions after the Franco-Prussian War were mainly phosphate iron ore, and the dephosphorization problem could not be solved for a long time. The cost is very high, which greatly affects steel production.

The Thomas Steelmaking Method solved the dephosphorization problem by adding lime to the Bessemer converter. The promotion of this technology enabled German steel production capacity to achieve cross-regional growth. In 1879, Germany adopted a large number of this technology and applied it to steel production. , solved the dephosphorization problem and carried out transformation, which greatly reduced the production cost.

 The utilization rate of coal in East Africa is relatively low. After all, the quality of coal in East Africa is completely different from that in Germany. Therefore, local scientific researchers in East Africa need to develop relevant technologies based on the characteristics of East African coal.

 …

These requests from the Ministry of Water Resources are not excessive at all in Ernst's opinion. Although East Africa paid a "heavy price" for the construction of water conservancy facilities, a conservative estimate is that at least 700,000 people died. Of course, for these sacrifices in East Africa, For black people working on water conservancy construction projects, East Africa can only express condolences.

After three seconds of silence for these black people, Ernst said decisively: "Agricultural water conservancy facilities in Angola and Mozambique must be improved as soon as possible. Although the Portuguese government made very little contribution to the local area, it is not completely without foundation, especially In the Angola region, we rebuilt and constructed the project in accordance with East African standards on the basis of the original water conservancy.”

“So this time our Ministry of Water Resources’ idea is to improve the regional navigation capacity of East African rivers in the East African Plateau and Central Plateau, and on this basis, to transform and upgrade the rivers in Mozambique and Angola, and at the same time to carry out water conservancy construction in the latter two It’s also a big problem. After all, during the Portuguese rule, the Portuguese government’s development of the two places was too low.”

This time, Yasted from the Ministry of Water Resources said: "Your Royal Highness, the Ministry of Water Resources mainly wants to address the issue of inland river navigation in the central and eastern parts of the country this time. After the national water conservancy construction, the navigation capacity of the rivers in the two places has reached a new level. level, but compared with the eastern coastal areas, it is still far inferior.”

 After summarizing the energy landscape in East Africa, everyone moved on to the next topic.

Angola’s water conservancy facilities are the most complete among the two major Portuguese colonies in Africa, but compared to the construction standards in East Africa, they can be said to be shoddy.

  After all, many of its colonial water conservancy projects were carried out independently by local plantations, with little overall scientific planning and a shortage of materials and tools.

Although the work of East African black slaves was hard, the tools and materials used were all produced in East Africa. Don't underestimate this. Portuguese colonies could only rely on imports from the mainland, and the cost of imports was too high, so in order to save a lot of money The planters relied entirely on the blacks to "work miracles with might."

 Coupled with the lack of scientific planning and guidance, the water conservancy facilities in the two places are fragmented, very scattered, and of varying quality. "Your Highness, please rest assured. After more than 30 years of experience, our Ministry of Water Resources has accumulated enough experience. Now everything is ready, except for the mobilization of manpower and materials."

After all, the Ministry of Water Resources still needs people. After all, although there are many black people under the management of the Ministry of Water Resources, they are also expendable. As for the mobilization of materials, it is not a big problem. After all, the railway and highway systems in East Africa were not as developed as they are today. The facilities will only be more advanced than before, and East Africa has always been a major food producer. Although the population is also increasing, the expansion of East Africa's territory is even more amazing.

 As the population increases, food is needed, and increasing food production may require further land reclamation. East Africa's land area has just increased, giving it more space to develop agriculture. Agricultural development is inseparable from water conservancy construction, thus forming a closed loop.

“This time our Ministry of Water Resources needs to directly mobilize at least two million workers across the country. In addition to the construction of water conservancy facilities in Angola and Mozambique, water conservancy construction in other regions across the country must also be further improved, so this requires active cooperation from other government departments. "Yarsted said.

“Well, water conservancy construction has always been a national policy in East Africa. When the last national water conservancy construction started, our country was not as big as it is today, so it is completely reasonable for the Ministry of Water Resources to ask for more manpower.”

Ernst is naturally supportive of this, but as a result, the workload of black workers in East Africa will be even greater. Last year, the number of black workers in East Africa dropped to more than 19 million, which is equivalent to a drop of three times in the past four years. More than a million.

This shows how much black labor was exploited in East Africa. Of course, not all of the more than three million black people who disappeared must have died of exhaustion on construction sites. A large part of them were sent out by East Africa. After all, East Africa has a black labor scrapping system. .

This water conservancy construction will definitely have a profound impact on East Africa. After all, water conservancy construction is different from railways. The number of black workers needed by the railways was only more than 300,000 at its peak.

The number of laborers required for water conservancy construction can easily reach millions, not to mention that not all black laborers are involved, but a large number of East African citizens are also involved in water conservancy construction.

 According to the experience of the first national water conservancy construction, the number of participants in the national water conservancy construction this time is conservatively kept at more than 20 million.

Water conservancy construction is a national project that can basically cover all regions of the country. After all, it involves tens of thousands of rivers, thousands of reservoirs, and even ditches in every field are part of water conservancy construction.

In the absence of mechanization today, all these projects can only be completed by manpower, and East Africa is following the "speed-through" school. Without the extreme mobilization model, East Africa would not have been able to achieve leapfrog growth in national power in more than thirty years. It has become an important grain producer in the world and the largest country in cash crops.

Therefore, in Ernst’s view, the two million black people required by the Ministry of Water Resources are very conservative. Take the previous Far Eastern Empire as an example. In the mid-to-late twentieth century, hundreds of millions of people across the country were mobilized to build national water conservancy.

 While the Far Eastern Empire has a history of water conservancy development for thousands of years, East Africa only has a history of more than thirty years. Looking at it this way, East Africa cannot compare with the Far Eastern Empire even if it is trying to catch up.

Therefore, this can only add more burdens to black labor on the basis of mobilizing people from all over East Africa. The tasks of water conservancy construction projects may be large or small, just like building new ditches in farmland, which are basically completed during the land reclamation. , but digging canals and building reservoirs are the real difficulties.

 (End of this chapter)