Artificial intervention in natural rivers may lead to some ecological and environmental damage, as well as change the characteristics of rivers and cause unpredictable disasters.

There are real-life examples of this, but Ernst doesn't think so, it's a matter of trade-offs, and if the benefits of human intervention outweigh the disadvantages, then the East African government has to do it.

Under natural conditions, under the influence of geostrophic deflection force, the river is always bent, but the bending degree of the river will not continue to amplify, when the bending reaches a certain level, the flow rate of the river will slow down, and the sediment is easy to deposit, so if the free river meander is artificially bent and straightened, what changes will the river have?

Because the river channel is straightened and there is no buffer, it is prone to flooding, and the river channel is cut and straightened to reduce the area of the river basin, which also reduces the utilization rate of the river water. The reduction of the area of the river basin has reduced the downward penetration of river water, which reduces the soil water water holding, which will make many places short of water, and have a great impact on the survival of animals, plants and human beings.

Secondly, it is also easy to promote the development of eutrophication in the water body, and the channelization of the riverbed is often accompanied by the decline of the diving level, resulting in a general reduction of wet plants in the natural environment. Subsequently, some of the natural environments associated with the river along the river also gradually disappeared, such as the evolution of forests on alluvial soils into hardwood forests. After the natural river meanders are artificially straightened, they will still gradually become meanders.

Ernst agrees with this 21st-century argument, but this problem is not unsolvable. Just like Taoism advocates "rule by doing nothing", ordinary people think it makes sense, but some people only pay attention to the word "non-action", if you really choose "do nothing" and do nothing, then you are really stupid and stupid.

Ernst's solution to these problems is to adapt to nature and transform East Africa in a holistic way to make it more livable.

Ernst, who was in Europe to negotiate business, took the time to lay out several general directions for the transformation of the rivers of the East African coastal plain, which he conveyed to Konstantin by telegram:

"First, the river transformation should be modified on the basis of the original river, such as cutting and straightening, but the river as a whole cannot be separated from the original position of the river to prevent excessive changes in the groundwater source."

"Second, widening the width of the river will inevitably erode the vegetation on both sides of the river, and at the same time widening the river, new vegetation should be transplanted on both sides of the river bank at the same time to prevent the erosion of the river on the water and soil along the river, and the siltation of the new river channel."

"Third, in the process of renovating the river, we should try to avoid the damage to the original riverbed and reduce the killing of fish and other organisms in the river as much as possible."

"Fourth, urban sewers should avoid discharging sewage directly into inland natural water bodies such as rivers, and instead build new pipelines to direct them into the sea."

"Fifth, for the wetlands that have been reduced after the river bends and straightened, we should build more small and medium-sized reservoirs along the route to regulate the flow of river water and at the same time help ensure agricultural water use."

"Sixth, try not to destroy the river network, because the construction of canals and the change of river courses will inevitably cut off the connection between some streams and the big rivers, and in the spirit of being responsible for the future, we must reopen it to avoid rainwater in the rainy season not being able to flow into the river and flow to the sea."

A total of six points is considered a relatively general guiding opinion, so Konstantin specially opened the phone and asked: "Ernst, your six suggestions, is it a little too worried!" ”

It's normal that Konstantin can't understand it, and most of the thinking of people in this era is like this, and there is no concept of ecology and pollution.

Ernst: "Father, this kind of thing just needs to be done according to my wishes, there is no requirement to be perfect, it is good to be able to do seven or eight things, I just give advice, there is no death rule." ”

Feeling that it was still a bit hollow, Ernst began to look for examples to convince Konstantin.

"The industry of today's era is rough development, and not many people pay attention to environmental issues, because people are not aware of the harm of environmental destruction, and we in Europe, the most typical is London."

"London is currently one of the world's most industrially developed cities, but the black smoke and sewage emitted by the factory to the damage to London's environment is visible to the naked eye, the black smoke is good to say, the wind will blow to the world, but even so, London is still a "fog capital", it can be seen that the power of nature can not directly purify the air in London, these black smoke is absorbed by the human body, it must be harmful, although I can't come up with any scientific arguments, but workers living in the most polluted areas, their life and diseases can not deceive people. ”

"The second is industrial wastewater, which is discharged directly into the Thames, and the whole Thames is a large stinky ditch, and a large part of London's domestic water is taken from the Thames. In particular, the land near the sewage outlet of the industrial zone is even more grassless, and even the grass cannot survive, let alone people, and the sewage containing various impurities has not been managed in any way, directly polluting the coastal land, and the land restoration is very difficult, even difficult to recover. ”

"In addition, urban development must be people-oriented, and the current European cities, the environment is far less than that of the countryside, which I believe you will have a very intuitive feeling from the comparison between Hechingen and Stuttgart."

"East Africa, of course, is not a rejection of industrialization, but sustainable long-term development, and if we get things done well from the beginning, the lower the cost of governance and correction will be in the future."

Now the status of the Little Rhine to East Africa is the same as that of the Thames to Britain, and the banks are the capitals of both countries, so Ernst is also more concerned about the management of the Little Rhine.

However, the solution to the Lower Rhine is only suitable for coastal areas, which are not far from the sea, and East Africa can be connected directly to the sea by engineering sewage drainage ditches.

This was already experimented with by Ernst when the city of Soga was founded, with a separate sewerage network that extended to the sea.

The domestic sewage of the first town (which is largely non-existent) is currently discharged directly into the Lower Rhine, and Ernst also intends to connect the underground water system of the first town to the city of Soga, and finally into the sea near the coast of Dar es Salaam.

Cities in the Central Province are close to the sea, and inland cities like Nairobi and Mbeya still have sewage discharged into rivers and lakes and then into the sea through rivers.

Protecting the environment is indeed a bit ahead of its time, but Ernst believes that since he has the ability, he should take the initiative to promote it in East Africa.

This is nothing more than to pay more labor and material costs, and the cheapest thing in East Africa is manpower, there is consumption in materials, there must be production, and it can further improve the industrialization level of East Africa.

Rivers such as the Lower Rhine are mainly valued in navigation, irrigation and water supply, and it is not necessary to discharge sewage directly into these rivers, although it is not necessary.

In other words, the first town is not an industrial city, otherwise those downstream farmlands that rely on the Little Rhine water for irrigation will have to suffer irreversible pollution.

Looking back in the twenty-first century for the compromises and concessions made in East Africa to protect the environment, East Africans must be grateful for Ernst's long-term vision.

(End of chapter)