Damming the Congo river would refill the basin surrounding Lake Chad providing fresh water to irrigate the Sahara and shipping access to the African interior.[4][5] Besides creating new bodies of land, the mass amounts of hydro-electric energy that would be generating, could account for 50% of Europe's energy needs at the time. While Sörgel was dreaming up the idea, he never took into consideration how other countries would react or change. The land mass of the Levant, for example, would increase by 50% due to the water levels dropping.