Juan Sanz Sanz

Study of the Integral Use of the Zambezi River Juan Sanz Sanz

In Africa, fertile lands are extremely scarce due to laterization, which converts agricultural land, to considerable depth, into a cobblestone. Only in certain territories do we find land that can be easily cultivated, but most are outside the intertropical space. Among these lands are the alluvial ones the most interesting. In Southern Africa, apart from the coastal plains that have formed the rivers with their alluviums and that are usually covered with forests, the only extensive alluvial region is that of the Okawango swamps. This territory, presumably fertile, fed by tributaries of the Zambezi, is the one that would interest us to colonize. It is barely two hundred ava part of the total extension of the subcontinent, but due to the intensive use that could be the object, it could be of exceptional utility. We must make the most of the few lands that in Southern Africa have natural conditions for this. Furthermore, unsuspected consequences can result from its intensive use. The purpose of correcting Nature, artificially facilitating the factors that it does not create and counteracting the negatives, can be applied here optimally. Perennial flooding can be avoided and the land it covers and becomes unusable, put into cultivation. The key to the draft is in the food capacity of those alluvial lands. Its extension is, together, almost 50,000 square kilometres, 5 million hectares, more than the Egyptian oasis. One hectare of intensively cultivated land can feed a family, but a larger plot of land is needed to provide an acceptable standard of living.