After discussing Water Conservancy Construction in the Great Lakes Region, Svit turned the topic to hydropower construction across the country.
Svit said, "Once the Fourth Five-Year Plan is completed, our country will save vast amounts of coal formerly used for power generation, thereby reducing the exploitation of domestic coal resources and further easing our energy shortage."
At the beginning of 1916, the pace of hydropower construction in East Africa visibly accelerated. Beyond the hydropower station projects in the Great Lakes Region and the Ethiopian Highlands,
a wave of "hydropower construction" swept across East Africa. As a major world power in electricity generation, East Africa was deeply interested in hydropower.
"According to the Fourth Five-Year Plan, before 1920, East Africa's power structure will undergo a complete transformation. Hydroelectric generation will be raised to at least 25 percent of total national power output—one quarter of all electricity generated in East Africa. This is a considerable proportion, and it will save East Africa vast quantities of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil."
The chief resource being replaced was coal. Compared with other continents, Africa's coal resources surpassed only those of South America. Of course, Antarctica did not count; a place without even people had little practical significance.
However, if Antarctica's coal resources were truly compared with Africa's, it was hard to say who would be the deer and who the hunter. Antarctica was covered by ice sheets, making exploration difficult. Moreover, Antarctica had not always been in its current position. Ancient Antarctica had once possessed vast forests, vegetation, and living creatures, which meant the Antarctic region had the basic conditions for coal deposits to form.
Thus, East Africa was unfortunate to lie on the relatively coal-poor African continent. The good news, however, was that most of Africa's coal resources lay