African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1510 Nine Industrial Zones

Zambezi Province.

The Zambezi River Water Commission in East Africa is headquartered in Tete. It is the most influential of the many water commissions in East Africa.

The Zambezi River Conservancy Commission has a heavy responsibility in the construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam.

For now, they are not only responsible for and supervising the construction of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, but also have to carry out comprehensive management of the entire river basin, especially the nearly 570-kilometer area along the lower reaches of the Zambezi River.

With the construction of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, the greatest impact will be on the lower reaches of the Zambezi River. The reason is very simple. There are almost no towns and population along the main stream of the middle and upper reaches of the Zambezi River.

The director of the committee, Katel, was currently inspecting the town of Kaya in the downstream Zambezi River Province. There were many investigators from the water conservancy department along the hundreds of kilometers of river stretching from Tete to Chende.

The town of Kaya in Zambezi Province is not far from Tete City. The director of the Zambezi Provincial River Authority stood behind Keitel and reported to him.

The Zambezi River Authority is a subsidiary of the Zambezi River Commission.

"In recent years, the development of the empire has caused some damage to the vegetation along the Zambezi River, increasing the sand content of the river. These river sands are basically deposited in the downstream areas and eventually transported to the estuary delta area."

"This is also one of the major threats to shipping in the Zambezi River. The amount of sand transported by the Zambezi River is close to 100 million tons. Although it is lower than that of the Danube River, it still poses a great threat to downstream shipping."

That’s right, the amount of sediment carried by the Zambezi River is not as high as that of the Danube River. This is a very abnormal phenomenon. After all, the climate along the Zambezi River is mainly tropical savannah, and grassland vegetation is more vulnerable to damage, leading to soil erosion.

In contrast, in the Danube River basin, the climate conditions are much better, the vegetation is more lush, and there are many forests. Therefore, the fundamental reason for the different degrees of soil erosion in the two rivers is still determined by the level of human activities.

The countries along the Danube and its tributaries include Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Western Ukraine and other countries, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which has developed industry and agriculture, a dense population and a long history of development.

In contrast, although the Zambezi River Basin has a large population, except for the lower reaches, the rest of the population is basically distributed in the tributaries of the Zambezi River, while the middle and upper reaches of the Zambezi River have basically not been developed on a large scale. This is one of the main reasons why the sediment content of the Zambezi River is lower than that of the Danube.

In fact, before the 20th century, the sediment content of the Zambezi River was far greater than that of the Danube River. However, in the s, with the economic transformation of East Africa, awareness of ecological protection increased, and water conservancy facilities were built in tributary basins, the sediment transport volume of the Zambezi River was reduced by nearly %.

Before the 19s, the Zambezi's sediment transport capacity was about million tons. Later, due to the development of the basin in East Africa, this figure surged to nearly million tons in just two or three decades.

Hydropower stations have a huge impact on the sediment content of rivers, because they have the function of retaining and regulating sediment. East Africa was an infrastructure maniac in the early 20th century, and large and small hydropower stations were built on the tributaries of the Zambezi River. In addition, after the 1920s, the vegetation along the river was protected and expanded. Therefore, it is not surprising that the sediment content of the Zambezi River has been greatly reduced.

At the same time, the countries in the Danube River basin did not have the infrastructure capabilities and maintenance awareness of East Africa, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which occupied the largest area in the basin.

The current Austro-Hungarian Empire is merely a preliminary industrialized country, or a semi-industrialized country. Countries at this stage have the greatest ability to destroy nature.

For example, in the past life, India's industrial development level was almost equivalent to that of the current Austro-Hungarian Empire. This made the Ganges River in India in the 21st century surpass the Yellow River to become the world's largest river in terms of sediment transport, with an annual sediment transport volume of more than billion tons, and this number is still rising.

As for the sediment transport of the Yellow River in 1931 in this time and space, it reached an astonishing level of more than billion tons, even close to billion tons.

Although the Far Eastern Empire had a low level of industrialization and its impact was even negligible, its population density and highly concentrated agriculture caused the sand content of the Yellow River to almost reach its historical peak.

The Danube River now has a higher sediment content than the Zambezi River. This is also due to the fact that agricultural development in Hungary has led to soil erosion, which is an important source of sediment in the Danube River.

Compared with the Danube River, East Africa is undoubtedly better at managing the Zambezi River, but this is not the limit of East Africa at present.

The director of the Zambezi River Authority said: "The silt in the upper reaches of the Zambezi River has always been an important reason why navigation in the lower reaches cannot continue to improve. I think that with the construction of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir, we can take this opportunity to carry out a more systematic and comprehensive management of the lower reaches."

"Especially in the past few years since the completion of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station and the storage of water, the downstream river channel can be deepened and widened by large-scale machinery, and the depth of the main channel can be extended to less than ten meters."

Currently, the average water depth of the main channel of the lower Zambezi River is about eight meters. This is the result of more than 20 years of efforts in East Africa. This allows 10,000-ton giant ships in the lower Zambezi River to reach Tete directly during the rainy season.

The reason why East Africa can do this, in addition to huge investment, is that it has cleverly taken advantage of the climate change of the Zambezi River. During the dry season, it is more conducive to the silt removal and dredging work in East Africa.

However, the East African government is still not satisfied with the result. The construction of the Cahora Bassa Dam has provided East Africa with another opportunity.

As mentioned before, due to the huge capacity of the Cahora Bassa Reservoir, it will take several years to fill it with water. During this period of time, East Africa can once again carry out a major transformation of the river section downstream of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station.

Director Kettle said to the director of the Zambezi River Administration: "Your idea has long been considered by the country. When the Cabora Bassa Hydropower Station is completed, the entire 500-kilometer lower Zambezi River will become a large construction site."

"This includes rebuilding the downstream riverbank, deepening and widening the river channel, solidifying the river bank, building a new river protection ecological belt, etc. This time I personally went to Kaya Town to conduct preliminary inspections and preparations for this series of projects. Hundreds of experts and technicians from the Ministry of Water Resources participated in this activity, all in order to manage the lower reaches of the Zambezi River into the Rhine of the Empire."

In the early 20th century, the river with the highest shipping capacity in the world was undoubtedly the Rhine. However, the Rhine was blessed by God. Take the previously mentioned headache-inducing sand content problem, for example; it simply did not exist for the Rhine.

The sediment transported by the Danube and Zambezi rivers is often measured in billions of tons, while the Rhine only transports millions of tons per year, and does not even reach 10 million tons. Not to mention that the Rhine has a large and stable water volume and is navigable all year round.

This is something East Africa cannot envy, but as long as they work hard, East Africans believe that they can tame the Zambezi River. By then, the Zambezi River's comprehensive advantages in shipping, power generation, water supply, etc. may even reach the world's best. After the transformation, the Zambezi River's shipping conditions will certainly still not be as good as the Rhine River, but not too much worse. In terms of power generation capacity, the Zambezi River far exceeds the Rhine River and other rivers.

Kettle said: "The Empire's transformation of the Zambezi River will be a continuous high-intensity war, and the transformation of the downstream area is only the first stage of this war. If you want to complete the transformation of the entire basin, it may take even until the end of this century."

“By then, the economic foundation of the Zambezi River Basin will be further consolidated, and it will become one of the most economically developed regions in the entire empire.”

This is not an unrealistic fantasy. There are three world-class industrial zones in the Zambezi River Basin, namely the Central Industrial Zone with Rhine City, New Frankfurt City and Lusaka as the core.

This industrial zone is mainly based on equipment manufacturing, non-ferrous metal smelting, automobile and electric power industries. At the same time, due to the existence of Rhine City, education and scientific research are highly concentrated, and cutting-edge and emerging industries are also very strong.

Then there is the Bohemian Industrial Zone, which was once the most important heavy industrial base in East Africa. With Harare and Bulawayo as its core, it mainly engages in steel, textiles, non-ferrous metal smelting, and military industries. It also has national key confidential engineering projects such as aviation, aerospace, and nuclear energy.

Finally, there is the Malawi Industrial Zone. This industrial zone is not ranked high in East Africa, but its strength should not be underestimated. Mbeya, the famous scientific research city and former heavy industrial city in East Africa, is located here. At the same time, there are considerable bauxite, rare earth, coal, ilmenite and other resources along the coast of Lake Malawi, so there are a number of small but strong industrial and mining cities.

In addition to these three established industrial zones, the lower reaches of the Zambezi River is also becoming another emerging industrial cluster in East Africa, with Tete and Shinde as its core.

This also means that in the future the Zambezi River Basin will connect four large industrial zones in East Africa. Once its transformation is completed, these four industrial zones will be more closely integrated through water transportation, thus becoming an area with highly concentrated economy and population in East Africa.

At present, there are only nine officially recognized industrial zones in East Africa. In addition to the four industrial zones mentioned above, the other five are the West Coast Industrial Zone, Letania Industrial Zone, Great Lakes Industrial Zone, East Coast Industrial Zone, and finally the South Industrial Zone.

Among these industrial zones, the Lower Zambezi River Industrial Zone, the Lethania Industrial Zone, and the Great Lakes Industrial Zone have not yet taken shape, but their industrial strength cannot be underestimated.

In other words, it is not ranked high in East Africa, but compared with other countries except the United States and Germany, it is considered a top industrial zone.

In addition to the nine major industrial zones mentioned above, East Africa also has many industrial towns or small industrial bases that are not included in them. This also shows the strength of East Africa's industrial strength today.

Director Kettle said: "Once the governance of the downstream areas is completed, the ranking of Tete City, Xindai City, and other towns in the downstream areas in the future will rise in the imperial economy."

"The city of Hinde may become the empire's new metropolis with a population of one million. As for the city of Tete, it may even squeeze into the top five and become a city of the same level as Mombasa, New Frankfurt, Cabinda, Luanda, and Dar es Salaam."

“It is no exaggeration to say that this will change the economic landscape of the entire country, and our Zambezi River Water Commission will be able to further consolidate its position in the imperial water conservancy department.”

The Zambezi River Conservancy Commission is not without competitors, such as the Congo River Conservancy Commission and the Nile River Conservancy Commission. However, the economy and population of the Zambezi River basin are destined to prevent the other two departments from receiving the same favor as the Zambezi River Conservancy Commission.

These three water conservancy committees correspond to the three most important rivers in East Africa, while the Orange River, the fourth largest river in East Africa, is not worth mentioning.

As for the reason, it is very simple. Although most of the Orange River belongs to East Africa, it cannot change the reality that it is a boundary river.

There is no need to explain much about the Zambezi River and the Congo River. Even though a small part of the Congo River belongs to Belgium, there is no problem in considering it as an East African river.

Although the Nile River belongs to several countries, the Great Lakes region upstream has great potential. The Great Lakes Industrial Zone also belongs to the Nile River Basin. Moreover, agriculture occupies an important position in East Africa. In addition, the industrial strength of petroleum, non-ferrous metals and other industries is not weak.

Compared with the first three, the Orange River is completely different, although there are also well-developed cities such as Otto City (Pretoria), Bloemfontein, Upington, Kimberley, etc. in the Orange River basin.

However, the focus of these cities is to develop eastwards, integrate into the Indian Ocean trade, then northwards, connect with the domestic market, and at the very least choose to trade with South Africa. The Orange River flows westwards, and its lower reaches have a very harsh climate and are uninhabited.

In addition to its status as a boundary river, the Orange River Conservancy Commission is not even as important as some small and medium-sized river management departments in East Africa, such as the Limpopo River, the Ruvuma River, etc.

It was the implementation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in East Africa that prevented the Orange River Water Conservancy Commission from being completely marginalized.

Celtic, as the head of the Zambezi Water Commission, doesn't care at all about the Orange River Water Commission.

He continued to say to the director of the Zambezi River Administration: "The Empire's investment in the Zambezi River Province will definitely increase in the future. This is also an important opportunity for the Zambezi River Province and your department."

"After all, this is related to the national development strategy of the Lower Zambezi River Industrial Zone, so you are under a lot of pressure. Whether you can seize this opportunity depends on who works harder, performs better, has more outstanding results, and has fewer problems, between you and the Rhodesian Provincial River Authority."

The lower Zambezi River is controlled by two provinces, Zambezi Province in the north and Rhodesia Province in the south.

Therefore, the Zambezi River Authority's competitor is the Rhodesia River Authority. These two river authorities, together with the Tete River Authority, are responsible for the entire lower Zambezi River basin.

The management of the lower reaches of the Zambezi River is also a key project in East Africa's Seventh Five-Year Plan and even in the Eighth Five-Year Plan. It focuses on Zambezi River navigation and accelerates the formation of the lower reaches of the Zambezi River industrial zone.

This project and the construction of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station are closely linked. After the completion of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, the East African government will focus on the construction of the industrial zone in the lower reaches of the Zambezi River and the agricultural irrigation area in Tete.

There is no doubt that the Lower Zambezi River Industrial Zone occupies an important position in the eyes of the imperial central government. Once its construction is completed, it will be able to completely activate the economic development of the entire Zambezi River Basin and become the leader in economic development along the Zambezi River.

(End of this chapter)