Posted on 08/06/2008 11:08:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
On the other side of the Red Sea in the south-west corner of the Arabian peninsula, Yemen has natural gas reserves and is trying to lure investment from its wealthy neighbours. But the country suffers from a shortage of fresh water and is beset by economic hardship, a persistent al-Qaeda menace and a Shia rebellion in the north.
It takes a leap of faith to believe that a private initiative can raise $200bn for what would be the world's biggest engineering project to link the two countries.
Plans are afoot for such a scheme, however. The grandiose project is the brainchild of Tarek bin Laden, a brother of Osama and a member of the board of the Bin Laden Group, one of the Middle East's most powerful construction companies...
Two cities - one in Djibouti, the other in Yemen - are envisioned at either end of a 30km bridge that will span the Bab al-Mandab ("Gate of Tears") strait, at the south of the Red Sea...
The suspension-and-girder bridge alone will cost about $25bn. Its supports will be the size of the world's tallest building...
Fostering trade between the two countries is the central aim of the highly ambitious project. Its success will depend on massive infrastructure development in eastern Africa where road and railway networks are notoriously dilapidated. Djibouti is bordered by Eritrea and Ethiopia - two of Africa's poorest nations - and by Somalia, which has not had an effective central government for more than a decade and has been plagued by civil war.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Okay, a little impressed...
They have natural gas, and an ocean... but they have a shortage of water? Desalination is a decades old technology. To use it you need ocean water and gas turbines. Then you have natural gas and clean, potable water.
What is wrong with the rulers that they can’t solve a problem any 12 year old with an internet connection couldn’t solve?
Evidently the cost moving the water inland is to high, but they still may not have a choice.
http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=958&p=health&a=1
http://www.desertec.org/downloads/proposal_sanaa.pdf
http://www.giay.org/GIA/invopp.php?langid=1&id=31
Pretty ambitious, but this is what I like. Forward thinking that actually improves people lives. Shake-ur-Booty has become more important especially to the Ethiopians after the loss of Eritrea. I think the port at Djibouti has become Ethiopia’s primary sea port. Sure the Egyptians will oppose this since they would prefer that everything is routed through the Sinai.
Well, the bridge wouldn’t take any traffic from the Suez Canal; but I wholeheartedly agree — a big infrastructure project like this would transform the economies of the two nations.
That is, until some terrorist group blew a great big hole in it.
:’)
I wasn’t thinking so much the canal as anything that would go from East Africa to the Middle East by ground probably goes across the Sinai. But I would image that most goods are shipped via water or air at this point.
The only thing I learned in school was how to pronounce Djibouti.
[singing] shake Djibouti, shake Djibouti...
Probably by water, rather than a route going through Israel. The Ottoman Turks built a rail line across the desert, from north to south (more or less), east of the Dead Sea I believe, all the way to Mecca (and maybe beyond). During the Saud uprising, the rail line basically ceased to exist. ROP...
I wonder what happened to “sheik yerbouty”. He used to be a frequent poster.
Building that bridge and then dropping it would close one of the “Gates of the Sea”.
Tunnel linking Europe to Africa planned [2003, with February update]
New Scientist | December 15, 2003 | Will Knight
Posted on 12/17/2008 4:20:22 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2150522/posts
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