This report is written by Xinhua Correspondent Chen Wanjun and Xinhua Staff Reporters Li Xiangdong and Xu Heping on how the PLA naval engineering corps stationed in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, helps build a project for supplying water to Macao. The report runs in full as follows:

On November 22, 1999, an old Macao resident named Cui Qunying, carrying with her 50 sets of commemorative stamps she had just bought from the post office, which reflect the lifestyle of water-carrying girls in old Macao, paid a special visit to a PLA naval engineering corps stationed in Zhuhai. She presented a commemorative board, inscribed with the words "When one drinks water, don't forget the water suppliers", to the engineering corps leader Fan Zhenwen and political commissar Chen Yuanming, expressing her gratitude to the PLA soldiers for their efforts to cut through mountains to bring in water for Macao compatriots.

Macao, surrounded by seas on all sides, has a critical shortage of freshwater. The saying, "A drop of sweet spring water outweighs the money of oil", is a true portrayal of Macao's water-shortage situation. Along with the economic development and population growth in Macao, the shortage of freshwater has become increasingly prominent. In 1985, the Zhujiang Water Conservancy Committee under the Ministry of Water Resources completed the designing program for diverting the Xijiang river water to supply Macao and Zhuhai, and set up a Macao Water-Supply Company; in early 1986, construction of the project for supplying water to Macao was formally started.

To divert river water into Macao, it is necessary to build a 16.4-km-long channel across hills and dales and open up seven tunnels. Of which, Nos. 5 and 6 tunnels, more than 1,000 meters long each, are the strategic passages for the entire water-supply project. Because of the land of strategic importance, the many broken belts of fault, and the narrow section of the entrance to the cave, construction of the project was extremely difficult. None of the 28 construction units cared to bid for construction of the project. Leaders of Zhuhai City went to ask for help from a PLA naval engineering corps stationed in Zhuhai. They knew the corps had completed construction of dozens of military airports and naval wharves, they had wrought wonders of digging national defense sea-bed tunnels, only they could shoulder this heavy task. The former head of the corps Li Ge immediately promised, "Diverting water for Macao compatriots, we will start the project however difficult it is!"

Doing tunneling work is so dangerous as if treading on thin ice. Cave-in and miso-fire pose two major threats to tunneling construction. Corps leader Li Ge, with more than 30 years of construction experience, led four students recently graduated from an engineering corps college in launching a trial of strength with nature by relying on their experience and wisdom. Through repeated analyses and studies and tests and verifications, they invented five methods for preventing cave-in, with the result that the danger of cave-in was changed time and again into safety. After cave-in was brought under control, miso-fire remained the opponents of officers and soldiers. Officers and men risked their lives for dozens of times to try to remove miso-fires inside the narrow, dim cave. Once they ignited 18 portholes, but only 10 portholes detonated. The remaining eight portholes, like eight monsters blocked the tunneling pace of the builders. Technician Zhang Luofang stepped forward, shouting, "Let me go in!" He let his comrades-in-arms withdraw, while he himself, holding a high-pressure pipe, charged into the cave and violently sprayed the miso-fires. At that moment, a mishap might lead to the destruction of the cave and the death of people. After two full hours, Zhang Luofang, relying on his superb skill and extraordinary courage, removed all of the miso-fires.

In a bid to supply Macao compatriots with the Xijiang river water at an early date, the naval engineering corps worked day and night at the construction site. Officers and men voluntarily gave up their weekend holidays and worked round the clock on a three-shift system everyday. A dozen or so cadres voluntarily postponed their wedding day, more than 30 old soldiers did not leave the work-site until the day before they were demobilized. Assistant Lu Guoxin, once after igniting the blasting fuse, was thrown off his balance by the blast wave before he had time to rush to the cave entrance, his safety helmet was thrown a dozen meters away, leaving a bossing as big as fist on his head; staff officer Chen Zhikui fainted several times because of oxygen deficit in the cave. He was carried to the cave entrance and after he came round, he went into the cave and continued working regardless of others' persuasion; a soldier named Lei Luping, taking three telegraphs about the critical illness of his kinsfolk at home, not caring about this, he continued working at the construction site for two full years.

Today, the Xijiang river water is streaming into neighboring Macao through the two 3,000-meter tunnels dug through the painstaking efforts of officers and men and moistening this stretch of land with flowers blooming luxuriantly. Naval officers and soldiers thus presented a lavish gift to Macao's return to the motherland through their actual deeds.