African Nationhood

Jianye (now Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe) has been established for more than ten years. The level of urban construction here is very high, with many buildings and spacious streets.

The only drawback is the lack of people. There are only more than 100,000 people in the entire city.

However, this city is already one of the few large cities in South China. After all, South China has a vast territory.

Since the establishment of the Nanhua Dominion, the Ministry of Urban Construction has set up an urban planning branch here.

Jianye's early construction focus is on urban construction and the construction of heavy industry factories.

After more than ten years of key construction, Jianye already has a steel plant, a machine tool plant and more than a dozen military factories. After the establishment of these factories, the demand for electricity has greatly increased.

Small hydropower stations and thermal power stations have been built in the suburbs of Jianye, which temporarily meet the electricity needs of the city's heavy industry.

However, in order to achieve long-term development and lay the foundation for large-scale industrial construction in the future, the urgency of building giant hydropower stations has become apparent.

The plan for the giant hydropower station has already been established, and the location selection there has become a problem.

Fortunately, with the instructions of Chairman Shi, the staff of the Urban Construction Branch selected the Kariba area between Lunda Administrative Office and Matabeleland area to build a giant hydropower station.

However, after site selection, feasibility studies on the construction of giant hydropower stations are still needed.

Fire and water are merciless, and giant hydropower stations are of far-reaching significance, so we must be cautious.

Several years have passed and the feasibility study on this giant hydropower station has come to an end.

On whether to build a dam and how to build it, the Urban Construction Branch has formed a feasibility report and submitted it.

……

Dawn has passed, and Cai Jinzhang wakes up habitually. This is the biological clock he has developed over the years.

After quickly getting up and washing up, he heard a knock on the door. It was his secretary.

Opening the door, the young man standing outside greeted him softly: "Good morning, Uncle Cai."

This young man is tall and has good facial features. His face still has the childishness and vitality of a newcomer to society.

Cai Jinzhang hummed, then smiled at the young man, "Xiao Hao, why don't you sleep a little longer?"

The young man chuckled, "My mother said that young people should learn to be self-conscious and not feel that they have privileges just because I am my father's son.

As your secretary, I should act like a real secretary and cannot get up later than you, otherwise my dad will criticize me. "

The young man in front of him is Shi Hao, who just returned from studying in Europe this year. Now he has changed his name to Ye Hao.

Because he studied civil engineering, Shi Jintang asked him to work as a secretary with Cai Jinzhang to get some training.

Cai Jinzhang was somewhat proud of the prince's role as a follower, so that he became the de facto "teacher".

……

Cai Jinzhang smiled and nodded, "Okay, wait for me a little longer and I'll be fine soon.

Let's go for a walk outside later and have breakfast. "

Shi Hao nodded, "Okay, Minister."

Cai Jinzhang put on his clothes with the help of Shi Hao, and then the two of them left the room together.

……

Jianye was very quiet in the morning. The two of them were walking in the garden of the guest house.

"The demonstration work for Kariba Hydropower Station has been completed. Have you read the report they submitted?"

Shi Hao pursed his lips and said, "Well, I've read it. This report is very detailed."

Cai Jinzhang didn't say anything after hearing this. He looked at Shi Hao and said with a smile: "Go on, you should have your own ideas."

Shi Hao shook his head, "I have no idea, but my father does. When I left, he told me that the demonstration work on the giant hydropower station in Kariba area should be as rigorous as possible.

It is necessary to consider the geological hazards after the construction of giant reservoirs as well as future maintenance and warranty issues. "

Cai Jinzhang nodded after hearing this, "Your father also said something similar to me. So, do you disapprove of the plan they proposed?"

Shi Hao neither affirmed nor denied, "Uncle Cai, do you think this report is feasible?"

Cai Jinzhang shrugged and smiled, "I don't know. None of us have ever built such a huge reservoir. We can only look at it."

After Cai Jinzhang finished speaking, he added: "But we must also pay attention to what your father said. If you are not sure, I think we can build a smaller hydropower station first.

Even if you fail, the impact will not be big. If you succeed, just keep going.

In this way, we can not only accumulate experience, but also have the flexibility to choose subsequent construction plans. "

Shi Hao felt that Cai Jinzhang's idea was feasible. His father was not a man who liked great achievements. He preferred a solid step-by-step approach.

After the two decided on the construction idea, the following demonstration meeting became simple.

……

After breakfast, the two took a car to the Jianye Urban Construction Branch, which was a three-story building.

The person in charge here is Lu Meng, who is now the director of the Water Conservancy Construction Department.

She has short hair cut close to her ears and wears a pair of wide glasses on her face. She is in her thirties, making her look more mature and old-fashioned.

Lu Meng walked over quickly, opened the car door, smiled and shook hands with Cai Jinzhang who had just gotten off the car.

Cai Jinzhang didn't feel any violation, smiled and shook hands with her.

Nowadays, the social atmosphere in Nanhua has changed a lot. In the social arena, working women are increasingly abandoning the traditional Wanfu gift and adopting the trendy handshake gift, while housewives will adhere to traditional etiquette in hospitality. Such an obvious difference does not seem unusual to Cai Jinzhang, who has been in it for a long time.

Shi Hao, a newcomer to the workplace, immediately noticed the difference.

But now that he was Uncle Cai's secretary, there was no need to comment on these details, so he kept smiling and shaking hands with Director Lu Meng.

"Hello, Director Lu, I am Ye Hao, Minister Cai's new secretary."

Lu Meng didn't pay much attention to Shi Hao. She was more focused on her work and nodded casually.

"Minister Cai, please come with me."

Cai Jinzhang arrived and everyone took their seats.

Lu Meng served as the moderator of the meeting. She announced directly: "The demonstration meeting for the giant hydropower station in the Kariba area will begin."

With Lu Meng's announcement, calm returned to the conference room.

A middle-aged white man stood up and walked to the topographic map of Kariba Canyon hanging in the conference room. Facing everyone in the conference room, he explained in proficient Chinese:
"I am Sfield, a researcher from the Water Conservancy Construction Department. Let me talk about the water flow in the Kariba Canyon area."

"It can be seen from the map that the water in the Kariba region mainly comes from the Zambezi River in the Lunda region and the Kuando River in Portuguese West Africa. These two rivers merge at the Victoria Falls, forming a huge runoff. .

Because the flow of the two main rivers will change due to the dry and rainy seasons, we determined after calculation that the average annual runoff of the two rivers is 7000 cubic meters per second, which is a very huge amount.

If a giant reservoir is built in the Kariba area, the capacity of the entire reservoir area will be beyond imagination.

According to our estimates, the entire reservoir area will exceed 5000 square kilometers. Such a huge reservoir and huge water storage capacity will have a huge impact on this area..."

"Can you give a concrete conclusion?"

Cai Jinzhang's question interrupted the white researcher's speech. He looked at Cai Jinzhang and shook his head: "I'm sorry, Minister Cai, I can't answer this question."

"Okay, Researcher Sfield, please take a seat first. Director Lu, I want to hear something practical."

Lu Meng nodded to the white researcher, who returned to his seat and sat down.

Lu Meng walked to the center of the conference room, turned over the previous river map, and replaced it with an expected map.

"Okay, Minister Cai, let me tell you about the plans for giant reservoirs and dams."

(Puppet can’t draw pictures, so I can only use satellite pictures instead. Please bear with me.)
“According to our calculations, once a dam is built on the Kariba Canyon to block the water flowing from above, a huge reservoir with a length of more than 280 kilometers and an average width of 30 kilometers will be formed.

The dam planned to be built is 128 meters high, 127 meters long, and 12 meters wide. The storage capacity is expected to be about 2000 billion cubic meters. "

After hearing these data, Cai Jinzhang's brows furrowed even more.

"Director Lu, why didn't you list these data in the report you submitted?"

Lu Meng smiled, "Because this giant reservoir costs too much, I don't think you will approve it, so I didn't add it."

Cai Jinzhang snorted: "Regarding the issue of geological hazards, which of you can tell me?"

Lu Meng smiled and responded: "Let me continue."

Cai Jinzhang nodded, "Continue."

“Because of the huge water storage capacity in the reservoir area, we don’t know exactly how much geological disaster it will cause in the area.

One is that we have no research in this area, and the other is that there are no cases of giant reservoirs of the same type in the world.

Therefore, we can only make some speculations about this study, and we cannot guarantee what will happen. "

Cai Jinzhang nodded, "I understand, just tell me the inference."

"According to our speculation, once a giant reservoir is built, it will not have a big impact on geology.

Because earthquakes are difficult to predict, instead of focusing on the illusory future, it is better to build them first.

Moreover, there have been no major earthquakes in Africa since records began, so we think the issue of geological hazards can be ignored. "

Hearing this, Shi Hao couldn't help but secretly pouted: Director Lu is too irresponsible.

Cai Jinzhang did not agree with Lu Meng's statement. Besides, he had already agreed on a construction plan with Shi Hao.

"Is it enough for you to just say something vague?

Nonsense!

This is a major matter related to people's livelihood. If we spend a huge amount of money to build a dam, and a major earthquake or other geological disaster suddenly occurs, causing huge losses to the downstream, who will bear the responsibility? "

Don't blame Lu Meng and others for being overly optimistic. Various academic ideas collided during this period.

The "plate drift theory" has not yet become mainstream, and researchers on the "East African Rift Valley" only regard this theory as a theory without scientific support.

There is not enough research on natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

Lu Meng and others can only infer based on empiricism. This era is truly about crossing the river by feeling for the stones.

Lu Meng lowered his head, "This plan is the hard work of all of us over the past few years. We don't want it to fail, so we think we can take the risk."

Cai Jinzhang thought for a while and felt that he should put his point of view out to prevent the people below from getting into a bigger mood.

“When we were establishing the giant reservoir construction plan, Chairman Shi reminded me that we should consider it more comprehensively.

Since there are too many uncertainties in the giant reservoir plan, I decided to break down the giant reservoir plan into a small hydropower station plan. After further research, I will decide whether to build a giant hydropower station. "

Ps: 3 chapters today, aiming for 9000 words. (End of chapter)