Text: Xiaoxia
Editor|Yan Dongshengji
Preface
The love of parents for their children is far-reaching. Just as China has a mother river, so that countless Chinese sons and daughters can be fully supplied, in order to make this Central Plains land a pure land of outstanding people, the current "stability of the present world, quiet years" is inseparable from the mother river Yangtze River and the Yellow River.
As one of the few countries in the world that has monopolized the mother river, China is really lucky not to have to fight against other countries and regions for the source of life. So how difficult is it to monopolize its own mother river, like China?
The Euphrates River influenced the rise and fall of several countries
The birth and continuation of civilization is inseparable from rivers, so the rise and fall of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and other countries are closely related to the Euphrates.
At the beginning of the 20th century, construction technology took off, and Syria built a dam on the Euphrates River, which was completed in 1965 with the support of the Soviet Union, followed by the Revival Dam and the October Dam.
The ideal is beautiful, but the reality is skinny, and the repaired dam has not brought as much convenience to the people as envisioned before the construction began. Once operational, the dam will generate less than a quarter of what was expected, and the irrigated area will be far from what was envisaged, less than one-fifth of what was expected, and Syria will not have to think much about it, because they know that Turkey is doing it.
In the second year after the construction of the dam in Syria, Turkey also joined the ranks of building dams, they chose the site in the upper reaches of the Euphrates, and then announced that they would build 14 dams and 11 hydropower stations on the river, and Turkey's original intention was to build world-class dams, so that after the dam was completed, the Ataturk Dam became the third largest dam in the world, with a storage capacity of 48.7 billion cubic meters.
This series of operations shows that Turkey has controlled the entire Euphrates, but this river was originally an international river and should be used reasonably and legally and fairly by all countries, but Turkey is too domineering, regardless of whether the Euphrates River is cut off or not, only a large amount of water is pumped from the river, resulting in a sharp decrease in the runoff of the Euphrates River through Syria, and the water level drops rapidly.
Today, Turkey controls 80 percent of the river's water, leaving only 10 percent of the Euphrates for Syria and Iraq to use.
In fact, no one wants to suffer this dumb loss, especially Syria and Iraq, but because they have become second-rate countries, they are deeply affected by the desertification of arable land and even the loss of rivers, and they have long lost the strength to compete with Turkey.
The Nile River nourishes the nations of Africa
Different countries living in a river will have a certain difference between the upstream and downstream of the river, so Egypt and Sudan in the lower reaches of the Nile River have already signed the "Water Agreement" in 1959, Egypt has access to 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water, Sudan has 18.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water, and the rest is at the disposal of upstream countries. In addition, Egypt and Sudan need to agree to the construction of the dam.
It seems fair and just, but behind the agreement is that eight upstream countries need water, but they are left with only 13% of the Nile water, and the two downstream countries alone account for nearly 90% of the river water, which will naturally cause public outrage, so Ethiopia also claimed that any country can build dams within its own territory, and this regulation has created another situation, and the countries in the Nile River basin are scrambling to use the river water and repair the dam, and the situation is even more chaotic.
Later, for the purpose of rational use of the Nile's water source, the eight upstream countries joined forces to sign the Nile Cooperation Framework Agreement in 2010, and even declared in 2011 that they would build a millennium dam in the upper reaches of the Nile, which is a blatant enemy of Egypt and Sudan. But in fact, no country can do without the Nile, whether it is the country's poverty alleviation, or the survival and development of life, it needs to be supplied by the river.
Egypt without the Nile is nothing but a desert
For various reasons, Egypt occupies 23% of the 6,650-kilometer-long Nile, and Iraq accounts for 46% of the 440,000-square-kilometer Euphrates River basin. Compared with China, which has a developed water system and convenient access to water in China, which has a unique mother river, the countries near the Nile and Euphrates river basins are either small in water and large in terrain, or have small populations and backward economies.
Only we, China, have received the gift of history, firmly grasped the opportunity, and used all our time and energy to monopolize the mother river. It is precisely because the countries on both sides of the Nile and Euphrates have not seized the opportunity to seize the rivers that they have fallen into passivity. Later, with the advent and development of modern technology, the rules of river use have also quietly changed, but these countries have wasted a great opportunity to build aqueducts to irrigate their fields with water flows, and they do not know how to build hydropower dams to generate electricity by taking advantage of the difference in terrain.
Therefore, the current lack of water resources is the result of the countries on both sides of the Nile and Euphrates basins not knowing how to adapt measures to local conditions and how to use science and technology for the benefit of the country. Initially, when water resources are abundant upstream, there will be many shock plains in countries and regions located downstream, which will also benefit the economy. However, the gradual growth of the population and the gradual expansion of the industrial area have gradually increased the water consumption upstream, which has led to the scarcity of water sources.
The Nile flows through 10 countries from start to finish, and countries such as Tanzania and Sudan have seen a population boom in the past few decades, with Sudan's citizens growing from more than 8.3 million to more than 45 million in just 61 years. But it's not just the population of a country that is increasing, it's the water consumption of the entire life of the country, whether it's people, crops, or other life, so the Nile, with its high runoff, is the obvious choice.
epilogue
Today's world is not peaceful, and ensuring world peace is still the wish of countless people. After all, there are too many factors that make people with different positions draw their swords against each other and fight for their own interests. Among them, the competition for water resources is an unavoidable aspect, you must know that water, as the source of life, is the basis for the survival of any life, without water, is to give up the hope of life, willing to die. At this point, it is no longer difficult to understand the reasons for the three wars in the Middle East over water.
It is precisely for this reason that we should cherish the opportunity to monopolize our mother river, after all, the desertification of arable land, the drop in water levels, the interruption of rivers, etc., are fatal and we cannot afford to do so. Compared with other countries and regions, the endless quarrels and wars over water resources, the mainland has long grasped the pulse of life, which is a gift from nature, and a blessing and luck that belongs to the sons and daughters of China.