Below you'll find a YouTube video. At first you'll think this has nothing to do with New Zild and on the surface you'd be right. But it is there to illustrate how the world doesn't stand still, it is developing all the time and NZ is being left behind.
This video shows the progress in construction of Uganda's second international airport. It's being built in the western part of the country, near Lake Albert by a UK and Israeli joint venture. Oh really? Isn't that interesting.
But first, some facts, Ken likes facts:
Uganda has a population of 44 million and is about the size of NZ. It has varied geographic shape, from mountains in the west to lower areas in the east (its highest peak is much higher than Mt Cook, complete with glaciers). Drier areas to the north, warm wet climate to the south. You'll have heard of Lake Victoria, which drains across the country to Lake Albert and then out north to the white Nile. Lots of water, rainfall about 1,000-1,500mm a year in two wet periods, so it rains for 6 months of the year, and has rich soils, humidity 77% and average temperature throughout the year of 20 degrees Celsius. Ideal growing conditions.
Yes, Hydro is being installed, nice and renewable with the fall from the mountains being exploited so the flow of rivers is used by being diverted in the upper reaches through steel pipes to the turbines, downstream the rivers just flow as normal. Really, cool, the UN is paying for it. No kidding, UN power programmes, nice eh, that UN, they're so climate friendly in supplying all that electricity.
Now, consider this; the Americans are now developing oil and gas fields in western Uganda, near Lake Albert. The oilfields contain billions of barrels. Billions, not millions. That's why the airport, they need a large airport to bring in all the oil field equipment and spare parts, but on the export side, the country is better served to export time critical fresh fruit and vegetables to the UK. It already does the latter via Entebbe, but now that capacity will be doubled.
With that oil and gas, they're building a refinery too, both supplying the local car market which is mostly Japanese secondhand imports, but VW has started building cars in neighbouring Rwanda. Then being built is an oil pipeline to east Africa, specifically to the Port of Tanga in Tanzania.
Of course all this construction needs cement, so Chinese companies have built a cement plant producing 3 million tonnes a year, three times NZ's annual consumption for those who want to know, and that's just the one plant. Next door to the cement plant they've built an industrial park making everything you can imagine that this kind of industrial development needs, right down to flooring tiles.
So, Uganda a country the size of NZ just blew away NZ's efforts to minimise carbon emissions. That's the message. And good for them. I hope they get a decent cricket team and thrash us one day (no, seriously, I really do). Personally, I'm amazed oil companies even bother with NZ. Why wouldn't these companies go where they'll be welcomed? So when you're told you can't have any LPG bottles, even when you've got a natural disaster and the power is off for months and you're starving, thank Saint Jacinda for saving you from climate calamity.
Anyway, the video as mentioned, patience with their version of English folks, thank you.
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