African Nationhood

Chapter 550 Djibouti’s Super Infrastructure Project
Djibouti Port, in the dark night, the "Jianye" was moored quietly in the port.

The torches lit up one by one, illuminating the dock.

The steerage opened, and groups of black workers slowly walked off the cruise ship, driven by the staff.

These black laborers from West Africa did not expect that they would travel through most of Africa and be brought here.

When Prime Minister Ouyang Geng of the Cabinet was communicating with Zhang Xianghe on how to deal with black people, he suddenly remembered the report submitted by the Djibouti Administrative Office.

The feudal nobles in Ethiopia still have a tradition of slavery (Ethiopia did not really abolish slavery until World War II in the original time and space).

Therefore, the cabinet immediately contacted Liang Pu of the Djibouti Administrative Office and asked him to contact the Queen Taitu faction.

Queen Taitu's faction belongs to the conservative faction in Ethiopia, and most of her factions are feudal lords.

They heard that the South Chinese could provide cheap slaves, which they welcomed.

The two parties quickly negotiated a price, 2 ounces of gold (8.5 pounds) per slave, which could also be replaced by agricultural products of equal value, such as coffee and tobacco.

All this was done in secret, and in order to keep it secret, the black workers would only be driven off the ship at night after the cruise ship docked.

Although the efficiency of transportation in this way is very low, tens of thousands of black slaves can be transported a year, and the gold obtained can be sold to the British in addition to personal use.

……

The first batch of 2000 black workers were driven into barracks that had already been built.

The garrison patrolled the surrounding areas and prohibited the black workers inside from moving around at will.

The buyers of black slaves have already arrived. They are housekeepers or relatives of feudal lords in Ethiopia.

Most of these people speak fluent English, and each has a code name and is not identified by their real name.

Governor Liang Pushi didn't care about it. He only cared about whether the buyer had enough gold.

The buyers were very satisfied with the arrival of black slaves. After all, Nanhua also transported strong black people.

The two parties quickly completed the transaction and once again agreed on the time for the next transaction, the buyers and their slaves left directly through the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway.

……

After sending away the buyers, Commissioner Liang Pushi didn't have time to sleep, he still had work to do.

Although Djibouti is a barren land, there are three Sudans here, namely Hausa, Tadjoura and Obock.

These Sudanese are extremely poor. Their daily life is to eat some mutton and drink some salt water.

After Liang Pushi arrived here, he really couldn't stand such miserable days. After arriving here, he conducted an inspection of the entire territory to survey the resources of the entire territory.

He planned to gather the power of the three sultans to solve the draft problem.

This is not only a people's livelihood project of the Djibouti Administrative Office, but also a performance project of Governor Liang.

This project was named "Jinshui Project" by Governor Liang.

The "Golden Water Project" is mainly divided into three aspects. The first is to find groundwater, the second is to divert water from neighboring countries, and the third is to build water collection projects.

The groundwater in Djibouti becomes more bitter the closer it is to the coast, and the groundwater in Djibouti Port is the most typical.

However, the inland groundwater has not been explored yet, so energy and time must be spent to do it, and it will be difficult to accomplish it even if it depends on the indigenous people for a hundred years.

Water diversion from neighboring countries is mainly from Ethiopia, a plateau country with dense rivers and lakes and huge rainfall.

If groundwater is not available, this is the most effective method.

But after all, the two sides are not the same country, and diverting water from Ethiopia is easily controlled by others, which is not the optimal solution.

(Later, the great Eastern countries succeeded in diverting water from Ethiopia directly to Djibouti.)
Water collection project is to collect rainwater.

It rains every year in this area, but it rains less frequently.

Although it rains less, when it rains it is often heavy rain and floods occur. Such high-quality fresh water cannot be wasted. Mosquito legs are still flesh no matter how small they are. Therefore, water collection projects must be implemented as a priority.

……

Liang Pushi wrote a complete project plan with confidence and submitted it to the cabinet.

In the project plan, he listed the materials and personnel to be used, and emphasized the importance of this move to the Djibouti Administration.

Although this project consumes a lot of manpower and material resources, there is no way to do it well, you must invest first.

This move was supported by the cabinet. Prime Minister Ouyang Geng believed that this project could not only deplete the number of local people, but also dilute the number of local indigenous people with black labor transferred from West Africa, preventing these people from forming a joint force to fight against the local people in the future. rule.

Therefore, the cabinet allocated a special fund of 2000 million yuan to Djibouti to purchase well drilling equipment for the Djibouti Administrative Office.

At the same time, additional ships were dispatched to transport black labor, sand, cement, prefabricated cement pipes and other supplies to the Djibouti Administration.

Within a few weeks, Djibouti’s port was filled with supplies and equipment shipped from the country.

It was a bit difficult to transport these supplies, but the locals also thoughtfully transported trucks for them.

With more than a dozen trucks, transporting supplies is easy. Liang Pushi, who received the support of the cabinet, appointed three sultans to start the construction of the water collection project.

The water collection project is to build a water collection cellar. This kind of project requires the construction of small water collection tanks in many places, and then collects them into large water collection tanks.

The water collection network also needs to consider the layout of the road network. The whole system is very cumbersome. Fortunately, there are local college students majoring in water conservancy.

They are young, energetic and able to endure hardships. They drink salt water with the department staff to welcome the scorching sun and never complain about being tired.

All of them were tanned and thin, but most of them were in high spirits and laughed all day long. Liang Pushi was very satisfied with these young men.

……

After two months of arduous construction and gathering nearly 2000 black workers, the Administrative Office built 10 water collection cellars in the Port of Djibouti and surrounding areas, with a total water collection volume of cubic meters.

If these water cellars can be filled up, they will be enough to provide enough water for 2 people for a year.

If you use it sparingly, you can double it again.

November officially enters the rainy season in Djibouti.

On November 11, a sudden heavy rain hit the port city of Djibouti.

Looking at the pouring rain outside, everyone present including Liang Pushi smiled cheerfully.

After a heavy rain, everyone rushed to various water cellars to check the water collection status. After checking, they found that most of the water cellars were full.

The administrative staff were very happy with this result. Now everyone no longer has to drink salt water.

As for subsequent disinfection and purification, they are all routine and there are ready-made regulations to follow.

……

Once the initial battle is successful, the next stage of work can begin.

That is the groundwater detection project. The Djibouti Administrative Office has also visited local indigenous people before. They said that the grassland in the inland border area close to Ethiopia is very lush.

The indigenous people there graze a lot, so the explorers formed a team to explore for groundwater resources.

They soon discovered groundwater resources in a village called Dikile in the southwest of the administration.

However, the groundwater layer here is somewhat deep, and mechanical equipment must be used to extract it. It is slightly difficult to rely solely on manual extraction.

……

After reading the report submitted by the exploration team, Liang Pushi felt that using mechanical power to extract groundwater was a bit luxurious given Djibouti's difficult natural conditions.

It is impossible for the local government to invest in this area for a long time. The key point is that the groundwater is not sustainable. Once it is pumped out, it will be useless. This issue will not be considered for the time being.

……

Diverting water from Ethiopia is a low-cost and long-term effective method.

The annual runoff of the Awash River in Ethiopia is huge, and floods are frequent especially in August and September during the rainy season.

Nowadays, most of this river is in its original ecological mode without too much artificial intervention. Every year, a huge amount of fresh water flows into the saltwater Abbe Lake on the border between the two places. If the water diversion is started during the flood season, some water conservancy dividends can be obtained.

Liang Pushi planned to talk to Ethiopian border officials and use the manpower advantages of both sides to build two diversion canals, one on the Awash River and the other on a local freshwater lake in Gemeli.

If the water diversion effect here is good, you can consider buying it in the future or snatch it by war.

Even giving some benefits to local officials is okay.

After all, he has very rich human resources, and the other party will be a good slave if he takes it.

Whether they are for resale or for personal use, they are very affordable.

……

The local officials in Ethiopia were very excited when Commissioner Liang Pushi took the initiative to visit. They were even more happy when they received the gift of ten strong slaves from Governor Liang.

The two parties agreed that this diversion canal can be excavated at any time, but the Djibouti Administrative Office needs to provide its own personnel, tools and supplies.

Liang Pushi naturally agreed, and before leaving, he gave some slaves to local officials.

……

After dealing with the local officials in Ethiopia, Liang Pushi discussed with the water conservancy personnel and decided to build a reservoir in a small tribe called Yoboki in the west of the administration.

This will be a future settlement where intensive agriculture will be carried out to grow food and vegetables for the administration.

Only when the self-sufficiency rate is increased can the Administrative Office be able to better reduce the burden on the local people.

PS: I’ll code one chapter first, and I’ll continue with the rest. I’ll try to make up as much as I can today, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll make it up tomorrow.

　Please subscribe, collect, monthly votes, recommendation votes,

　　Thank you to book friends 20220823140510824, Heart of Frosty Sky, and Time Is Gone Old for your monthly support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)