no.507 Author: Arrogant Colonel Cartographer: Listener of the Wind.
The navigable mileage of the Yangtze River, the largest river in China, and its water system is more than 710,000 kilometers, annual passenger traffic 18.4 billion passengers, freight volume 471.4 billion tons, known as the "** waterway". In contrast, on the Ganges, the largest river in India, there are no large steamers in sight, which is much more pale.
The Ganges River is dotted with boats. Source: wiki.
Located in the densely populated and urbanly plains of northeastern India, why is there almost no navigation on the Ganges River, which is wide and abundant?
Geo Valley FM-507, Geo Valley, 8 minsDeath by drought when there is a drought, and death by waterlogging when there is a flood
The entire Indian Peninsula carries the Asian continent on its back and extends southward into the Indian Ocean, making India deeply influenced by the alternation of land and seaTropical monsoon climate
In summer, the pressure belt and wind belt moved northward, the equatorial low pressure moved to the northern hemisphere, and the southeast trade wind moved northward to the Indian peninsula, becoming a southwesterly wind under the influence of geostrophic deflection forceIt carries water vapor from the Indian Ocean over the entire peninsula, especially on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, where it is blocked and causes heavy precipitation。In winter, the pressure belt and wind belt move southward, the equatorial low pressure belt moves to the southern hemisphere, the Asian continent has a strong cold high pressure, and the wind blows from Siberia in Mongolia to India, which becomes a northeast wind under the influence of geostrophic deflection forceSince the wind comes from the northern interior, it is naturally drier, so the precipitation in winter is much less than in summer.
Influenced by the tropical monsoon climate,Precipitation in the Ganges River basin is divided into two seasons: dry and rainyThe rainy season is concentrated from July to October, and these 4 months are the flood season of the Ganges, and the river water accounts for 82% of the total water volume of the yearThe other eight months are the dry season, when the Ganges enters a dry season, and the river accounts for only 18% of the total water volume of the year。The stability of the river volume is a prerequisite for the development of navigation in a river, and the Rhine River in a temperate marine climate with uniform precipitation throughout the year is an example. However, the Ganges, a river that "dies of drought when it is dry and dies of waterlogging when it is waterlogged", causes it to have a high shipping value during the wet season, and the shipping value is too low during the dry season, and the low shipping value is as long as 8 months.
The Ganges is a very unstable river. Source: wiki.
Is there an artificial solution to this problem? Yes, you canReservoirs were built to regulate the flow of water in rivers。The Yangtze River in the same monsoon climate zone gives a good answer, China has built 284 large reservoirs and 1529 medium-sized reservoirs in the main tributaries of the Yangtze River, in addition to generating electricity, it can also cut floods and replenish dryness, adjust the water level - the flood season will close the sluice to store water, and the dry season will open the sluice gate to release water, which makes the Yangtze River overcome the disadvantage of uneven water decline in the monsoon climate, and the ship traffic is stable throughout the year.
Wudongde Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Source: wiki.
But when we switch the climate map and look at the topographic map of India, the method of building a reservoir like the Yangtze River does not work.
There is a lot of sediment and the terrain is too flat
The Ganges flows from northwest to southeast, with the flat, open plains of the Ganges as a backdrop.
Looking back at the period of continental drift, the Indian Ocean plate collided with the Eurasian plate and disappeared beneath the Eurasian plate, thus lifting the high Himalayas. At the same time, its southern foot once existedA large number of trough geological formations emerged as a result of structural subsidence, which was gradually filled with the alluvial action of the Indus and Ganges rivers, which eventually formed the present-day Indus-Ganges Plain. The Indus-Gangetic plain is geologically considered a foreland or foreland basin, and it is flatter than the average plain.
Most of the reservoirs on the Yangtze River are built in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to regulate the water level in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The Ganges River is divided into the main stream, the northern tributary, and the southern tributary, and the situation of the three is different. The main stream flows mainly through the Great Plains, with a very small drop, and the terrain is flat and open, densely populated, if a reservoir is built,The inundated area is too large to cover the cost of resettlement。The northern tributaries flow mainly through the southern slopes of the HimalayasThe steep slope but narrow canyon make it impossible to build a large reservoir。The southern tributary flows mainly through the Deccan Plateau, which is gentle compared to the southern slopes of the HimalayasHowever, the precipitation is average, and the role of building reservoirs to regulate the water level of the main stream is not obvious, and it's also densely populated.
Neither is it steep, nor is it flat. Source: wiki.
Therefore, only some small reservoirs can be built on the tributaries of the Ganges River in Nepal, and the total storage capacity of these small reservoirs is only 28 billion cubic meters (the total storage capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir is 39.3 billion cubic meters), and it is difficult to regulate the Ganges River, which has a runoff of more than 550 billion cubic meters.
In addition, excessive sediment content has also become an obstacle to the construction of reservoirs. According to statistics,The Ganges River transports 14 sand in the year5.1 billion tons, ranking first in the worldIt is three times the 500 million tons of sediment transported by the Yangtze River, and seven times the sediment content of the Yellow River (today), which is the river with the highest sediment content in people's impression, which is more than 200 million tons. It is conceivable that even if the Ganges overcomes the topography and builds a large reservoir, it will not be long before the huge amount of sediment will fill it up.
The Ganges River became the "Yellow River". Source: wiki.
Moreover, due to the influence of the terrain being too flat, the average flow velocity of the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges River is 120,000 cubic meters per second, which is an average of 2 than the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River880,000 cubic meters per second is much slower. The Ganges River in the middle and lower reaches is generally more than 4 kilometers, which is wider than the Yangtze RiverThe river is wide and shallow, and once a ship with a deep draft enters, it is very easy to run aground
There are no estuaries and are far from international waterways
The Yangtze River has a total length of 6,363 kilometers and a basin area of 1.8 million square kilometers, and the entire river is located in China, while the Ganges River, with a total length of 2,700 kilometers and a basin area of 1.06 million square kilometersThe entrance to the sea belongs to another country, Bangladesh。In 1947, India and Pakistan were partitioned, and India was separated from British colonization as the new Indus Pakistan, and Pakistan was divided into West Pakistan and East Pakistan, and in 1971, East Pakistan became today's Pakistan, and East Pakistan became Bangladesh. In 1971, India built the Faraka Dam on the border between India and Bangladesh in order to compete for water resources on the Ganges, diverting 60% of the Ganges water into the Hooghli River through Calcutta, causing even greater siltation, not only causing more siltation in the middle reaches of the Ganges, but also collapsing relations with Bangladesh.
Intercept part of the river water to help India better access to the sea. The picture above shows the Faraka Dam and the Hooghly River below. Source: wiki.
Moreover, the Ganges, which has the highest sediment content, meets the Brahmaputra River, which has the third highest sediment content in the world, in BangladeshThe total amount of sediment in the two major rivers is 217.7 billion tons, constantly accumulating and expanding, forming the Ganges Delta, the world's largest estuarine deltaIt is impossible for a giant ship from the Indian Ocean to enter from here.
No wonder the Ganges Delta is so big. Source: European Space Agency.
Not only that, China's Yangshan Port, Zhoushan Port and other ports are located in the international main waterway, and ships from all over the world come and go, and the passage is convenientThe mouth of the Ganges River is located in a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal, far from the main international channel of the Indian Ocean, few ships will make a detour.
Railways replaced river transport as a habit
Is the Ganges River "not wide in the ancestors"?
The rulers of ancient India attached great importance to the construction of water conservancy projects. In the 14th century, the Delhi Sultanate built a 240-kilometre-long canal on the Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges, which was the longest canal in the Ganges River basin at that time. In the 17th century, the Mughal Empire built an irrigation canal on the Yamuna River, which was later transformed by the British into the East Asian Muna Canal, which became the model for the upper Ganges and all subsequent canal projects.
Entering the colonial period, 1842-1854,The British built the first canal in India, the Ganges Canal。In 1854, the Ganges Canal was officially opened with a total capital investment of 2.15 million US dollars. The main channel of the canal is 560 kilometers long, the tributaries are 492 kilometers long, and the tributaries are 4,800 kilometers long. In 1855, irrigation began on the canal, benefiting more than 3,100 square kilometers of land in up to 5,000 villages. "It was the largest canal the world has ever built, five times as long as all the major irrigation lines of Lombardy and Egypt combined, and even one-third longer than the Pennsylvania Canal, the largest navigation canal in the United States," says historian Ian Stone. ”
The first step in modern water conservancy in India - the Ganges Canal. Source: wiki.
In general, whether it is an ancient Indian or a British canalThe irrigation role was greater than the shipping value, and the shipping capacity was limited by the conditions at that time
In the middle of the 19th century, the British began to build railways on a large scale in India. By the time India became independent in 1947, India had taken over 60,000 kilometers of railways from the BritishThese railways crisscrossed the river and were convenient and efficient, quickly replacing the Ganges as a shipping service。Moreover, since the British built the first railway and road bridge over the Ganges,The height of the bridge on the Ganges is very low from the river surface, and this custom of building bridges continues to this day。This also completely eliminates the possibility of the Ganges developing large-scale shipping capacity. Even on the surface of the Ganges River today, you can see that in order to alleviate the pressure of cross-river traffic, India has built pontoon bridges near the bridges under construction for emergency purposes, not to mention large ships, even small fishing boats cannot pass.
The overland transport mindset is deeply ingrained. Source: wiki.
Of course, India** is not negative on the issue of improving the navigation capacity of the Ganges. In 2014, the Indian Inland Waterways Authority, with the help of World Bank funding, developed the Jal Marg Vikas Project. The plan aims to increase the shipping capacity of the Ganges River, the "National Waterway No. 1", and is planned to cost 536Rs 900 million,Construction of a number of inland river multimodal transport terminalsAchieve the purpose of 1500-2000 tons of ship traffic。Since 2014, the program has been successfully implemented under the organization of India**.
Modi has also advocated a "port-oriented" economy, which aims to sell "Make in India" globally through ports. Source: wiki.
In December 2018, India's first inland waterway terminal, Varanasi Port, was inaugurated, making it the first time that India has achieved inland waterway container transportation after 70 years of independence.
References: Ganges shipping with low value**. mgx；jal marg vikas project.Inland Waterways Authority of India; A study on the progress of India's "inland river network project" and its geopolitical impact. Wang Jin* This article is provided by the author and does not necessarily represent the position of Geo Valley.