In East Africa's Fifth Five-Year Plan, agriculture focused on the use of water resources and land management, because these were large-scale agricultural projects that covered the entire country, and virtually every area had related needs.
Therefore, it had to be noted that in water-abundant regions like the Great Lakes Region, the focus of water-saving agriculture differed. Within the Great Lakes Region's rice-growing areas, water management and land management were also tightly intertwined.
The Great Lakes Region placed greater emphasis on drainage. This was reflected in increasingly complex and refined agricultural irrigation tools, allowing water resources to be used according to income and expenditure, improving efficiency while building extensive networks of ditches and canals to guide water where it ought to go.
As for the direction of the Great Lakes Region's waters, aside from flowing downstream along the Nile River, the East African government had another key project in North Great Lakes Province. Of course, this water conservancy project actually involved two provinces—North Great Lakes Province and Turkana Province—though Turkana Province was the overall beneficiary.
Ernst asked about this, "How is construction progressing on your province's water-diversion project, the western-route water diversion project from the Great Lakes Region to the Sardinda Plain?"
The Sardinda Plain was the plain lying between the East African Highlands and the Ethiopian Highlands. Lake Turkana sat upon this plain, while the Benadir Plain lay to its east.
Of course, these plains were generally not especially well known. When dividing such regions, people preferred to judge them by desert landforms. For instance, East Africans generally liked to call the Benadir Plain the Somali Desert region, or the Northeastern Desert region.
The Sardinda Plain's climate was broadly similar to Somalia's, so East Africa had three important water-diversion projects in order to strengthen the development and utilization of the