The Viability of Irrigating Northern Botswana

[godefrois]

Hello all, I was looking at a map of Northern Botswana/Zambesia, and couldn't help to notice the amount of lakes, rivers and even the oasis/inland delta which all exist in the region. I even came across the fact that a large lake existed in the region, and is considered by scientists to be the origins of Homo sapiens. I wondered, what if either Botswana or perhaps European settlers, maybe spurred by an earlier discovery of diamonds in the region, overtook mass irrigation projects. Perhaps, through redirecting rivers, such as the Kwando/Linyanti, building dams on other rivers, and building large reservoirs and aquifers, some sort of large scale irrigation could be taken on.

Now, because I am not an expert in terraforming nor engineering, I wished to ask the community the following questions:

1. Could/would a Botswanan/European government be willing to undertake such a project?
2. How early could this project be undertaken? I assume that it would be possible with 20th century technology, and thus could be reasonably initiated at any time during the 20th century, but I would like to know if I have assumed wrong.
3. Would this project, if the parameters of permanently flooding the Makgadikgadi Pan, and creating other lakes and irrigations channels in the region, be useful in the long run? Or would it just be a massive waste of time, money, energy and resources?

I have provided some diagrams and pictures below:

 

[godefrois]

This is partially a bump, but, the existence of a lake would increase the amount of rain in Namibia and Angola, due to the Lake Effect, correct?

 

[GunterW]

It’s an interesting scenario, you end up diverting some of the flow of the Zambezi to the Okavango delta and once it floods it spills to this dry Makgadikgadi Pan basin in Botswana? That would end up replacing Lake Kariba, because there’s not enough water for both. Any reduced flow in the Zambezi will also upset Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

I think it’s feasible, the Soviets did large scale irrigation projects in Central Asia with a similar objective in mind, so if we use them as a benchmark, the technology exists by the mid-1900s if not earlier.

However, I don’t see the business case being strong enough to support the investment. The region is very scarcely populated, unless there is some demographic pressure , like OTL Egypt with its planned Qattara depression project, then I am skeptical it would make sense, but I am not an engineer, so I can't comment on actual costs.

 

[godefrois]

However, I don’t see the business case being strong enough to support the investment. The region is very scarcely populated, unless there is some demographic pressure , like OTL Egypt with its planned Qattara depression project, then I am skeptical it would make sense, but I am not an engineer, so I can't comment on actual costs.

In regards to this, do you think that European settler colonialism, if it were to happen in the region, could be substantial enough to merit such a program?

Also, if any is more knowledgeable on water flow, what are people's thoughts on whether the lake or lakes created would be saline or fresh? The Makgadikgadi Pan is relatively shallow, so if enough water flows into it, enough of it could flow out into (a) channel(s), creating other river(s) in the area.

 

[GunterW]

I don’t think it’ll get a lot of settlers because it is hard to get there. The infrastructure is not great, Angola and South Africa are better positioned to get an influx of settlers and only a few end up venturing that far. Maybe a more successful Rhodesia that manages to expand (unlikely it will be allowed) to Bechuanaland with more support from apartheid South Africa can think of grand engineering projects to make itself more attractive to immigrants. In OTL, they were desperate to increase the share of whites in the country as their system is destined to fail/can’t last long.

Maybe an early diamond rush is enough to get the population for there to be demand of more land to grow when the diamonds start to get more difficult to mine.

 

[godefrois]

I don’t think it’ll get a lot of settlers because it is hard to get there. The infrastructure is not great, Angola and South Africa are better positioned to get an influx of settlers and only a few end up venturing that far. Maybe a more successful Rhodesia that manages to expand (unlikely it will be allowed) to Bechuanaland with more support from apartheid South Africa can think of grand engineering projects to make itself more attractive to immigrants. In OTL, they were desperate to increase the share of whites in the country as their system is destined to fail/can’t last long.

Maybe an early diamond rush is enough to get the population for there to be demand of more land to grow when the diamonds start to get more difficult to mine.

Ah, thank you for your comments. So a white settler population undertaking this feat is largely out of the question. So then it rests upon the Native Botswanans, who could definitely afford to do so, if the price point isn't too high.

 

[Texas Bulldog]

Bump

 

[durante]

Ah, thank you for your comments. So a white settler population undertaking this feat is largely out of the question. So then it rests upon the Native Botswanans, who could definitely afford to do so, if the price point isn't too high.

I think maybe a joint Botswana-Zambia project, if done in the late 60s or early 70s while copper prices are high, could be possible. Botswana has developed into one of Africa's wealthiest countries on the basis of its diamond mining (and proximity to SA probably doesn't hurt), whereas Zambia has traditionally tried to diversify their economy more, because of the much larger population