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China Succeeds in Exercising Unified Control of River Water Flow
News of victory has poured in from China's water resources front as we just crossed the threshold into the new century: With the loving care of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Heihe River has successfully realized cross-province water transfer for the first time in history, the Yellow River has realized unceasing flowing the whole year in times of serious drought, the Bosteng Lake has twice brought life-saving water to the downstream of the Tarim River. These three major events mark a major breakthrough made in the unified control and scientific management of the runoff of Chinese rivers.
In recent years, due to continued dry weather in China's northern regions, plus excessive utilization and disorderly management of water resources, the Yellow River has begun to dry up since 1972, this situation has occurred almost every year since the beginning of the 1990s. In 1997, this situation extended up to Henan¡¯s Kaifeng City, 780 km from the river mouth, the drying-up continued for 226 days the whole year in the Lijin Hydrometric Station. In the Tarim River, China¡¯s longest inland river, the river section, 363 km from the Daxihaizi Reservoir down the lower reaches, has since 1974 completely dried up, the green corridor on the downstream of the Tahe River has been in a precarious state; the Heihe River has been dried up for more than 10 consecutive years during the flood season, populus diversifolia over a large tract of land in downstream areas has whither away. Eco-environmental problems and social problems arising from water resources have become ever more outstanding.
The shortages of water resources in northern rivers have aroused the concern of leaders of the Republic. When Comrade Jiang Zemin inspected the Yellow River in 1999, he gave the instruction on the unified control of the volume of river flow; Premier Zhu Rongji concerned himself with the problem concerning the transfer of water of the Heihe and Tarim rivers.
Cross-province transfer of water affects the relations of interest of the upper and lower reaches and the left and right river banks, which requires the all-out support and coordination of all quarters. In order to guarantee success in cross-province water transfer, Zhangye Prefecture, though hit by drought over a vast area of farmland and forest and grassland, released water downstream four times to Ejin Banner of Inner Mongolia to ensure that the latter retain a sufficient water amount of 650 million cubic meters; to keep the smooth flow of the Yellow River, staff of the Water Transfer Bureau of the Yellow River Water Resources Committee carefully drew up a water transfer plan and sent out in succession 100 inspection groups to guard every water gate. The key water-control projects in various provinces (regions) along the way made concerted efforts in cooperation, gave the green light to ensure the smooth flow of the Yellow River, the Ningxia and Inner Mongolian irrigated areas saved water by 910 million cubic meters and 380 million cubic meters of water respectively to support people on the lower reaches in years of drought, the Xiaolangdi water-control project suspended power generation for 74 days; to guarantee that the Bositeng Lake transfers 350 million cubic meters of water to the green corridor on the downstream of the dried up Tarim River, staff members of the Tarim River Administrative Bureau all turned out to dredge the river course, fighting valiantly day and night in the desolate Gobi Desert.
The brilliant achievements gained in harnessing the Heihe, Yellow and Tarim rivers at the turn of the century represent the success gained in the unified control and management of water resources. At present, on the basis of summing up experiences, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Yellow River Water Resources Committee and other departments, to deal specifically with the existing weak links, are studying and adopting related measures in order to do the work related to the unified control of the river water flow even better this year.
By PD Online staff member Liang Faming
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