Although our country still needs to be improved in other areas, we have a unique advantage in infrastructure construction. We have not only completed many remarkable "super projects" in China, but also actively went abroad to help other countries build infrastructure, and completed many projects that other countries considered "impossible".
For example, we once "cut off" the Nile, the longest river in the world, and completed a dam that the United States, Japan and other countries thought was "impossible to complete by human engineering", which shocked the West.
Sudan, an ancient country in northeastern Africa, is not only rich in historical heritage, but also rich in oil and natural gas. According to statistics, before 2011, Sudan's proven oil geological reserves reached 11.6 billion barrels, and natural gas reserves were as high as 30 billion cubic meters.
However, despite all its abundant resources, Sudan has been poor, with a GDP per capita of just over $700, making it a truly poor country.
The reason behind this is the 20-year-long sanctions imposed by the United States.
In the 60s of the last century, American oil companies began to set foot in Sudan for development. After decades of hard work, the United States has discovered rich oil and gas resources such as the Suakin natural gas field in Sudan.
However, when American oil companies began to make money in Sudan, a civil war broke out in Sudan and the situation instantly became chaotic. In the midst of this chaos, the assassination of Egypt's ** Mubarak and the killing of three employees of the American company Chevron, which caused great anger in the United States.
To express outrage over the incident, U.S. oil companies were forced to withdraw and imposed sanctions on Sudan for 20 years. However, in the past 20 years, Sudan has not been able to use these rich oil resources to improve the country's economic situation, but because the country's backward industrial technology and infrastructure cannot be effectively developed, not only can it not make money by selling oil, but it needs to import oil, which makes Sudan gradually reduced to an extremely poor country.
Sudan is a long and narrow country, half of which is located in the hot and arid Sahara Desert, and the other half is hot and humid tropical rainforests, and the distribution of water resources is extremely uneven, which seriously restricts the development of agriculture.
Despite Sudan's desire to develop modern industry, it is difficult to implement due to the shortage of electricity throughout the country. At the beginning of the 21st century, Sudan's national power generation facilities were only 600,000 kWh, the power grid was immature, the power supply capacity was limited, and power outages occurred from time to time.
Residents in affluent areas can only rely on diesel generators to generate electricity, which solves the electricity problem, but also brings noise and air pollution, which seriously affects the quality of life.
To solve these problems, Sudan** decided to build a dam on the Nile.
The Nile River is the longest river in the world, flowing through eastern and northern Africa, with a total length of 6,670 kilometers, running through the entire territory of Sudan from south to north, and is the largest and most important river in Sudan.
However, Sudan** plans to build a dam on the Nile, but they know that this great plan will require global support and participation. Therefore, after years of preparation and efforts, Sudan** has come up with 1.6 billion US dollars (about 10 billion yuan) and is open to global bidding to plan to build a dam in the Merowe region.
China became the contractor of the megaproject after Western countries showed strong interest in the megaproject and visited Sudan. In 2003, China Water and Electric Power International Corporation and China Water Resources and Hydropower Construction Group jointly took over the construction of the Merowe Dam.
The dam is located 350 kilometres north of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, where two tributaries of the Nile, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, meet. Although Western experts have expressed skepticism, saying the dam is beyond the current engineering capabilities of humans, China has succeeded in accomplishing this difficult task.
According to the plan, the total length of the Merowe Dam is 9,285 meters, which is more than three times the total length of China's Three Gorges Dam of more than 3,000 meters. When put into use, the dam capacity will reach 124500 million cubic meters, the power station capacity of 1.25 million kilowatts, equivalent to more than twice the national capacity of Sudan at that time, even if there is still a certain gap compared with the Three Gorges Hydropower Station, but for Sudan, this is enough to make it one of the countries with the most developed power infrastructure in the region.
The West's shaking of the head of the Merowe dam speaks volumes about the challenges it must be in its construction. Overall, there are three major difficulties that need to be overcome in the construction of this dam.
In one of the hottest countries in the world, Sudan, the first challenge in building a durable dam is the evaporation of concrete water from the high temperatures.
Not only do you need to consider the constraints of the geological environment, but you also need to meet the needs of the local people while maintaining the overall strength of the dam. In addition, designing the spillway and ensuring the durability of the concrete at the bottom of the dam was a huge challenge due to the large seasonal variations in the flow of the Blue Nile.
On the other hand, the upper and lower slopes of the Nile are relatively gentle, and the water level must be raised to store water for power generation. However, this will lead to longer dams and larger reservoirs, creating challenges for site selection.
In addition, the poor infrastructure in Sudan, the lack of materials, the dilapidated transportation facilities, and the chaotic management took three months to transport equipment and raw materials, which greatly delayed the progress of the project.
However, the Chinese side, as the contractor of the project, with its ability and wisdom as an "infrastructure madman", will overcome these difficulties and build a large-scale dam that satisfies Sudan.
When China built the dam in Sudan, it fully considered the local natural conditions, and used the design scheme of the concrete panel earth-rock dam to skillfully use the local stone resources, which effectively reduced the construction cost.
In order to avoid cracks in the concrete of the dam, Chinese engineers have adopted advanced computer simulation technology to specially strengthen the places where cracks may appear in the dam, and strengthen the weak parts of the dam to reduce the impact of temperature changes on the dam.
China has independently developed concrete moisturizing technology to cope with the damage to concrete in the local high temperature and dry environment. In order to adapt to the diverse environment and flow of the Nile, the Merowe Dam was designed with five dam types, including almost all modern river hub dam types, except for the absence of arch dams.
During the construction process, the Chinese engineering team first excavated the loose and weathered rock, used high-pressure water cannons, air jets and other technologies to clean the rock surface, and then filled the rock gaps with concrete to ensure the stability and safety of the dam.
During the construction of the dam, the Chinese side not only built pumping stations and irrigation canals to meet the needs of the local people for agricultural irrigation and domestic water. At the same time, considering that Sudan's industrial base is relatively weak, China has specially procured important materials such as reinforced concrete, machinery and equipment needed for the construction of the dam, and has established a sound transportation plan to transport a large number of materials to Sudan by air and sea transportation.
In order to improve the transportation efficiency, the engineering team also sent people to the wharf to pick up the goods, and set up a special transportation team to ensure that the materials can be transported to the construction site in a timely and safe manner, providing a guarantee for the smooth progress of the project.
Chinese engineers use blasting and extrusion technology to prepare for preliminary construction, which not only greatly improves the utilization efficiency of gunpowder, but also reduces the amount of gravel removal and further improves the construction efficiency.
In addition, the Merowe Dam project also applies an automatic safety monitoring system, even if it is unattended, the computer can monitor and collect data in real time, and find faults or problems in time through data analysis and issue alarms, which greatly saves manpower and time costs and improves engineering efficiency.
Thanks to the leadership and efforts of our companies, the Merowe Dam, which was originally expected to take 20 years to build, was finally completed in only five and a half years.
While thanking the Sudan, we cannot ignore the contribution of other Arab countries to the construction of the Merowe dam. Saudi Arabia provided 1A $500 million loan, with construction funding from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Therefore, the completion of this dam is a success story of South-South cooperation, and China is not the only contributor. In addition, despite the sanctions imposed on Sudan by Western countries, the German company Ramel as a consultant and supervisor of the dam, and the French Alstom provided generators and turbines for the hydroelectric plant, and they also contributed to the development of Sudan to some extent.
In March 2009, the Merowe Dam was completed in person, and the then Sultan al-Bashir personally visited him, and he eagerly said that this project of the century would give African brothers a better life.
According to the statistics of relevant agencies, the dam has reduced the cost of electricity in Sudan by 25%, and the cost of agricultural electricity has been reduced to 2 3, which will help the Sudanese people get rid of poverty and move towards a more prosperous life.
The Merowe Dam not only provides irrigation for more than 1 million acres of farmland around it, directly benefiting more than 4 million Sudanese people, and promoting the development of Sudanese agriculture, but also in the process of dam construction, China has also trained a large number of Sudanese skilled workers, improved their skills and abilities, and improved their income and life.
In addition to the Merowe Dam, we have also taken over the renovation project of the Sultan Rosseles Hydroelectric Power Station. The hydropower station was built in the 60s of the last century, and due to disrepair, the storage water capacity was seriously reduced, and it was unable to generate electricity normally.
However, after the Chinese enterprises took over, they made full use of their own technical advantages and rich construction experience to overcome many difficulties, raised the dam by 10 meters as a whole, and increased the reservoir capacity to 7.4 billion cubic meters, significantly increasing the power generation capacity of the hydropower station.
This project has not only improved the electricity environment in Sudan, but also improved the surrounding agricultural irrigation conditions, expanded the area of arable land in Sudan, and promoted the development of agriculture in Sudan.
The Upper Atbara Water Conservancy Project in Sudan is an important project undertaken by China in Sudan. The completion of the project, which is located in a traditional agricultural area in Sudan, will expand the irrigation area to 500,000 hectares and solve the agricultural irrigation and water problems of 7 million people in Sudan.
At the same time, the construction of municipal water supply pipelines and facilities has ensured the drinking water needs of about 30 million people and greatly improved the living conditions of the Sudanese people. Because these three large-scale projects have solved the basic problems of people's livelihood in Sudan, provided a large number of jobs, and promoted local economic development, Sudan** specially printed the designs of these three projects on the currency with a denomination of 100 Sudanese pounds issued on February 1, 2019, to express gratitude to our country for its aid in construction.
The friendship between Sudan and China is not only expressed in verbal thanks, but also in substantive actions. Sudan is rich in domestic oil resources, but faces a double dilemma of capital and technology in self-exploitation, so they chose to hand over the rights to extract about 7 billion barrels of oil to China, with a total value of up to 500 billion US dollars, as a way to express their gratitude for China's help.
This action made the Western countries, led by the United States, feel red-eyed, but they have nothing to do. Even if the United States lifts the 20-year-old economic sanctions against Sudan, it will not be able to undermine the deep friendship between China and Sudan.
This move by Sudan not only reflects the friendship between China and the Soviet Union, but also shows respect and understanding for international relations.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, the Sudanese Ambassador to China was interviewed by the people. He said that China is a reliable friend of Sudan and many African countries.
At the United Nations, China actively upholds the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and supports Africa's rejuvenation. He also mentioned in particular that despite the fact that "poor countries are hard to find vaccines", China has still provided a large number of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries like Sudan, ensuring the life, health and safety of the Sudanese people.
At the same time, China-Sudan agricultural cooperation has really benefited the Sudanese people, the China-Sudan Agricultural Cooperation Development Zone has benefited 200,000 Sudanese farmers, and the China-assisted slaughterhouse project has helped Sudan to establish"Green industrial chain"to enhance the hematopoietic capacity of Sudan's economy and improve the lives of the Sudanese people.
While on the economic books, we may not have made much money from the construction of the McVille Dam project, and may even have lost money, in other respects, we have gained a lot. For example, we have won the friendship and support of Sudan and the whole of Africa, and enhanced our international status and influence.
Moreover, we have done so by helping people in Africa lift themselves out of poverty and become rich"A community with a shared future for mankind"and the responsibility of a great power. From these perspectives, the project is not"Loss"。