Song of Conquering Nature by Dredging Silt and Building Defense Lines

Following are excerpts of this report written by Our Staff Reporters Wang Huimin and Gao Yuncai to mark the 50th anniversary of the project launched by New China to harness the Huaihe River. The report focuses on the following four points.

What kind of a river is the Huaihe? Special and complex! "Unless the river is harnessed, there would be no peace and stability in the country." This truth has been made clear time and again by history.

The Huaihe River originates from Tongbashan Mountain within the territory of Henan Province, flowing through four provinces-Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong, with the river valley area reaching 270,000 square km. In ancient times, it was as famous as the Yellow, Yangtze and Jishui rivers. The upper reaches of the river are less than 400 km, but the drop is as long as 178 meters; the middle reaches are 490 km, but the drop is only 13 meters, while the lower reaches extends 150 km, but the drop is only six meters.

In terms of climatic and geographical features, there are three different kinds of weathers-humid and semi-humid, coastal and inland, and south and north weather, geographically, the confluence lies in the embrace of the river. On earth, this combination is a typical belt fraught with disasters. Firstly, precipitation distribution is uneven: in the mountainous areas of the southern part, the annual precipitation can exceed 2,000 mm, whereas in the mountainous areas of the north, it is only about 100 mm; secondly, there is great difference in the amount of precipitation within the year: the average annual amount of precipitation is 883 mm, while in the three-month flood period, the precipitation may make up 70-80 percent of the total amount of the year, and precipitation often comes in the form of a rainstorm and in a concentrated way. The saying, "heavy rain results in serious disaster, minor rain in minor disaster, and no rain in drought", becomes the true portrayal of the life of the masses in the Huaihe river valley.

As we glance over the historical book, we find each chapter and each page about the Huaihe River are filled with tear and blood:

--Between April and August of 1593, the Huaihe River was hit by flood which affected 120 prefectures and counties.

During the period of over 700 years when the Yellow River flowed into the sea through the Huaihe, the Huaihe river alley experienced more than 420 serious floods, average one in less than two years.

People with high ideals throughout the ages had never stopped fight against the Huaihe River. Their efforts had played a certain role under particular historical conditions, restricted by such factors as social systems, the developmental level of productive forces and scientific and technological means, however, the result of their efforts were limited and unsatisfactory.

History has repeatedly made clear such a simple truth: Unless the river is harnessed, there would be no peace and stability in the country!

"The Huaihe River must be harnessed!" The Communists declared war against the Huaihe River. People along the river banks, united as one, dredged silt and built defense lines, composing songs one after another about the battle against the Huaihe River.

Soon after the birth of New China, the Communists fixed their eyes on the Huaihe River. In 1950, Chairman Mao Zedong gave written instructions on disaster relief and regulation of the Huaihe River four times, issuing the great call that "The Huaihe River must be harnessed!" Premier Zhou Enlai personally arranged the convocation of the working conference on regulating the Huaihe River, studying and formulating the "water-storing and discharging" strategy for harnessing the river.Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De and Deng Xiaoping inspected the Huaihe River many times. Since the beginning of the 90s, the third generation leading collective of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core, from the height of the whole situation of social and economic development, made the decision to bring the Huaihe River under further control, increase input in the harness of the Huaihe River, and personally went to the spot to give guidance to work, and thus vigorously promoted the process of the project.

In the early 50s, people still led a difficult life, however, millions of people in the Huaihe river valley, threw themselves into the main battlefields of regulating the Huaihe River as they did in supporting the Huaihai Campaign in earlier years, they dug out new steams one after another through dredging the Huaihe, and built flood-control dykes.

The Huaihe River meanders through four provinces and over 20 prefectures and cities, the harness of the river is not only a technological and engineering problem, it also involves intricate and complex, multifaceted relations between partial and whole, and immediate and long-term interests. Only when we proceed from the overall interests of the whole society and fairly and reasonably harmonize the relationship between various quarters, can we ensure overall and rational planning. This could only be an extravagant hope in any previous dynasty. Today, under the Party's leadership, various localities along the Huaihe River, support each other and sacrifice the interests of the small family for the interests of the big family, thus composing one song after another in praise of unity and cooperation.

Statistics show that since the 50s, large artificial new rivers stretching 2,614 km have been dug in the Huaihe river basin, and a total of 5,700 reservoirs have been built. It is estimated that the amount of earth and stone work done in the harness of the Huaihe River over the past half century has exceeded 40 billion cubic meters, piling up a dyke one meter wide and one meter high, capable of making over 1,000 circles around the earth!

With the guarantee of these projects, the anti-flood capacity of the Huaihe has been greatly enhanced, with the flood-control standard rising from resisting flood that occurs once every two years to resisting flood occurring once every 10 years. The flood-control standard on the middle and lower reaches has approached the capacity of resisting flood that occurs once every 50 years. The effective irrigation area has increased from 800,000 hectares in the early period after the founding of New China to 8.67 million hectares.

"The Harness of the Huaihe River over the Past 50 years Has Turned Saline and Alkali Land into Paddy Rice, and Disaster into Welfare.

The effort to harness the Huaihe River over the past half century has brought about fundamental change in the outlook of the Huaihe river valley:

--The previous "wide poverty-stricken belt" has become "granaries". In 1949 grain yield was only 14 billion kg and per-capita share was less than 200 kg; by 1999, the figure had reached87.6 billion kg. Over the past 10 years, the commercial grain provided to the State each year has accounted for about one-fourth of the national total, and that of commercial cotton about one-fifth of the national total.

--Navigation. Before liberation, the river course was seriously silted up, with rapid wave rolling forward in the river bed. People had to shoulder things, moving their way forward step by step. After 50 years of construction, the Huaihe River now has 1,400-odd river channels, with a total length of over 20,000 km and an annual transport volume of goods amounting to 80 million tons, a 9-fold increase over that in the early period after the birth of New China.

--In areas on the downstream of the Huaihe River, in the past, the farmland was waterlogged all the year round and there were frequent crop failures. After liberation, construction of the key water conservancy projects in Tongyuhe River and Yinjianghe River in Qinzhou has brought local people bumper harvests, replaced their cottages with new houses and beautified the area with flowers, mulberry and fruit trees.

According to Ning Yuan, director of the Huaihe Waster Conservancy Committee, over the past 50 years, a total sum of 92.3 billion yuan has been put into the project of regulating the Huaihe River, which has brought about direct economic returns of 566 billion yuan, equivalent to the nation's financial resources in the mid-80s.

These figures alone are, perhaps, far from enough to show the tremendous change taken place in the Huaihe river valley. The row upon row of new houses of farmers on both banks of the Huaihe River, cars shuttling along the expressways and the new colorful fashions worn by girls can vividly and concretely explain the change.

In addition, the change is also manifested in a deeper layer. Former director of the said committee Zhao Wujing told the reporters about the situation he witnessed when he first came to the Huaihe river basin: Due to the limited anti-flood capacity at that time, the fruits of people's labor were often washed away by the floodwater. Repeatedly attacked by disasters, many people had formed the psychology of muddling along and having no desire to make progress. Once when floodwater caused by a rainstorm had come to the border of a village in Yingshang County of Anhui Province, some local people still leisurely sat on the dyke with their feet playing water! The magnificent feat of the Party and government to build water conservancy projects had enabled the masses to see the hope, and reinforced their determination to rebuild their homeland. At present, in the same Yingshang County, most farmers have put up two-storied buildings. Xiaozhang Village of Xieqiao Town of the county has become a well-known eco-agricultural village which was praised by a UN official in charge of environment protection when he was in an investigation tour of China. He said that the village had set a very good example for the world in protecting, improving and developing the eco-environment.

There Are Still Many Contradictions Between Water-Rich and Water-Deficient, Pollution-Discharge and Pollution-Control, Development and Subsistence! In Harnessing the Huaihe River, the Task Is Heavy and the Road Is Long.

Although fundamental change has taken place in the appearance of the Huaihe river alley, the most talked-about topic in conversation with locals on the way of the reporters' coverage of news was the existing problems regarding the Huaihe River and the orientation for future efforts. This represents a sober head and a higher demand set for the work of regulating the Huaihe River.

Yin Hongdong, head of the designing institute of the Huaihe Water Conservancy Committee, said, "Although the Huaihe River's anti-flood capacity has been much greater than before, we still lack ways and means to cope with larger floodwater. Fifty years of efforts have enabled us to use dams to lock the floodwater, in years when serious floods occur, floodwater usually pour to tributaries and the low-lying lands which are thus submerged.

A local said that the problem of pollution remains a chronic disease. Since the 80s, call for the control of pollution in the Huaihe River has been issued almost every year, but without much result. In 1998 water of the Huaihe river valley that met the third type water quality standard was less than one-third. In early 1999, a test of the pollution discharged into the river from 46 main cities and towns, and the result showed that the volume of the main pollutant COD increased by 4.8 percent over the 1998 figure.

As to how should the contradictions between pollution discharge and pollution control and between development and subsistence be resolved, the question remains to be further explored.

Although there is no longer the malpractice of using the neighbor's field as an outlet for one's overflow, water-related disputes still frequently occur. At present, we still lack effective means for their solutions.

The contradiction arising from contention for land between man and water has become increasingly sharp. Director Ning Yuan of the Huaihe Water Conservancy Committee said: The Huaihe river valley now has a population of 165 million, averaging 594 people per square km, with population density being the highest among the nation's seven large river valleys. The area of river basin and gross volume of water resources account for only one-29th of the national total and yet it rears one-eighth of the nation's population, this has unavoidably given rise to the problem of scrambling for land between man and water, as a result, during the past 50 years, the area of the Hongze Lake, Nansi Lake and Luoma Lake has decreased by 35 percent, that of Hongze Lake has dropped almost by half.

During the reporters' coverage of news along the banks of the Huaihe River, they happily saw that the local people were working hard to explore ways for harnessing the Huaihe River. Grounds have been broken for the Bengbu sluice gate expansion project designed by the Huaihe people themselves. The channel through which the Huaihe Rives flows into the sea has been dug by nearly half, and the whole project is expected to be completed soon.

We have every reason to believe that with the wise leadership of the Communist Party, with a superior socialist system and with the local people united in struggle, although harnessing the Huaihe River still needs time, it is absolutely no longer a dream!

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