The Ministry of Water Resources recently announced that in the first eight months of this year, China's water conservancy construction has completed an investment of 801.94 billion yuan, a growth of 10.7% over the same period last year, which was already at a high level.

Wang Baoen, the Vice Minister of Water Resources, stated that since the beginning of this year, the Ministry has held monthly coordination meetings. Under the premise of ensuring the quality and safety of construction projects, it has made every effort to promote the construction of water conservancy infrastructure. In the first eight months, the country's water conservancy construction has exceeded the same period last year in terms of investment implementation and completion, the number of water projects carried out, and the number of jobs absorbed, providing strong water security to promote sustained economic growth and stable development.

Major projects are accelerating comprehensively.

On September 26th, the first ultra-large diameter hard rock tunnel boring machine "Jianghan Pioneer" for the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route's Jianghan Complementary Project was launched, marking the project's imminent entry into the combined construction phase of "drilling and blasting method + hard rock tunnel boring machine method."

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As the first major project to start construction in the follow-up projects of the South-to-North Water Diversion, the Jianghan Complementary Project is a symbolic project for accelerating the construction of the main skeleton and arteries of the national water network. It is of great significance for improving China's strategic pattern of water resource allocation and promoting coordinated development between the south and the north. After the completion of the project, the Three Gorges Reservoir will "join hands" with the Danjiangkou Reservoir, with an average annual water diversion volume of 3.9 billion cubic meters.

At the same time, the long-term stability of the Yellow River has added a heavyweight "counterweight" - the Yellow River Guyuan Water Control Hub project, located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, has officially entered the construction phase. After the completion of the project, in conjunction with the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, it can further enhance the regulation and storage capacity of the Yellow River's water and sediment, control the sediment accumulation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the development of the suspended river, and improve the water resource security level in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has significant and far-reaching significance for improving the Yellow River's water and sediment regulation system and ensuring the long-term stability of the Yellow River.

As an important part of infrastructure, China's water conservancy infrastructure construction has accelerated comprehensively this year. A total of 37 major water conservancy projects, including the Yellow River Guyuan Water Control Hub, Liujiang Changtang Reservoir, and the Yangtze River Tongling River Section Management, have started construction, which is 6 more than the same period last year; the Pearl River Delta Water Resource Allocation Project has been fully watered, the Heihe Huangzangsi Water Control Hub, Jiangxi Huaqiao Reservoir, and Inner Mongolia Dongtaizi Reservoir have been impounded for water storage, and the Tibet Xianghe Water Control Hub has been fully constructed and put into operation; a batch of major national water network projects such as the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route's Jianghan Complementary Project, the second phase of the Huai River into the Sea Waterway, the Beibu Gulf Water Resource Allocation, Taihu Lake Wusong River Rectification, Jiangxi Xiajiang Irrigation Area, and the Haihe River Basin Flood Storage and Detention Area are being accelerated.

Wang Baoen said: "The construction of these projects will strongly support the implementation of national major strategies, and ensure the water supply security and flood control security of China's important economic areas, important urban agglomerations, energy bases, grain-producing areas, and key ecological functional areas."

While accelerating the construction of water conservancy projects, it is even more important to ensure quality. Shang Quanmin, the director of the Water Conservancy Engineering Construction Department of the Ministry of Water Resources, said that in the process of promoting project construction, it is necessary to focus on the goal of high-quality development, strictly implement the lifelong responsibility system for project construction quality, continuously improve the quality management system, take the quality improvement of major water conservancy project construction as the key, carry out special rectification of common quality problems in water conservancy project construction, strengthen the whole process and cycle management of project construction, and strive to build high-quality projects.

The scenery of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route main canal section at Xinchen Bridge in the central urban area of Nanyang City, Henan Province.Strengthening the Foundation of Grain Irrigation

Water conservancy is the lifeblood of agriculture, and a bountiful grain harvest is inseparable from the guarantee of irrigation. At the construction site of the continuation, supporting, and water-saving transformation project of the Gaohu Nao medium-sized irrigation area in Yongfeng County, Jiangxi Province, excavators, transport vehicles, and other types of construction machinery are shuttling back and forth, and workers are rushing to lay water-saving pipelines.

"Once the canal is repaired, it will be more convenient for us to divert water to the fields, saving time, labor, and water. We no longer have to worry about a lack of water for irrigation," said Zheng Naixian, a villager from Longyuan Village, Shima Town, which the irrigation area project passes through. It is understood that the main channel of the Gaohu Nao medium-sized irrigation area project in Yongfeng County adopts box culvert technology this time, which has solved the problems of channel leakage and collapse blockage, achieving efficient water-saving irrigation; water-saving pipelines are laid downstream to ensure that the "intestinal obstruction" and "last mile" issues between water sources and farmland are effectively resolved.

"After the project is completed, it will effectively improve the irrigation area of 24,000 mu, and the irrigation guarantee rate of the project area can reach 85%. The annual average increase in crop production in the irrigation area will be 13.24 million kilograms, and the direct economic benefits will be 27.54 million yuan," said Fan Chunlei, an engineer from the Yongfeng County Water Conservancy Bureau. Since this year, Yongfeng County has continued to promote the construction of water conservancy infrastructure in reservoir irrigation areas, and has invested 136 million yuan to implement water-saving supporting transformation, effectively improving and ensuring the irrigation water for nearly 150,000 mu of farmland in the county.

"This year, through channels such as the central budget, central financial water conservancy development funds, and additional issuance of government bonds, support for large, medium, and small irrigation area projects has reached more than 1,300, with central financial support exceeding 100 billion yuan, providing a good opportunity for promoting the high-quality development of irrigation areas," said Xu Dezhi, Deputy Director of the Rural Hydropower Department of the Ministry of Water Resources. So far, the construction of irrigation areas has completed central investment of more than 60 billion yuan.

Irrigation areas are the main force in ensuring the stable production of grain security. In recent years, the frequent occurrence of extreme weather has further highlighted the important role of irrigation areas in agricultural production. For example, from the end of May to the middle and late June, North China, the Huang-Huai-Hai region, and the northwest encountered local severe droughts. Large and medium-sized irrigation areas fully played the role of the main force in drought resistance, ensuring the sowing and seedling water for more than 57 million mu of corn and other crops; at the end of July, affected by heavy rainfall, some areas in Liaoning and Hunan suffered from flooding disasters. The Ministry of Water Resources organized irrigation areas to open self-discharge gates, pumping stations, and temporary drainage equipment to drain water in full force, ensuring that drought can be irrigated and flood can be drained.

"Since this year, the construction of irrigation area infrastructure has been continuously promoted," said Shang Quanmin. This year, the construction of large-scale irrigation area projects such as the Xiajiang Irrigation Area in Jiangxi, the Meishan Irrigation Area in Hunan, and the Guxian Reservoir Irrigation Area in Henan has started, mainly concentrated in the central grain-producing areas of my country. After the completion of the project, it will add or improve the irrigation area of nearly 3 million mu, which is of great significance for reducing the loss of drought disasters, ensuring national grain security, and promoting rural revitalization.

As the irrigation of autumn grain crops gradually ends, the construction of irrigation areas is about to usher in the golden period of construction. Xu Dezhi said that the Ministry of Water Resources will strengthen scheduling, guide localities to grasp the quality and progress of project implementation, carry out metering facilities and digital twin construction simultaneously, improve the water use metering monitoring system, and promote the construction of irrigation area backbone projects and high-standard farmland in a coordinated manner, to ensure that the project is basically completed and effective by the end of the year, and continuously consolidate the foundation of grain security water conservancy.

Continuously release the benefits to the people

Statistics show that since this year, the country has implemented 42,000 water conservancy projects, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%. Among them, 28,000 new projects have been started, a year-on-year increase of 18.7%. Large-scale water conservancy infrastructure construction has actively created employment opportunities and fully played an important role in stabilizing employment.As of the end of August, national water conservancy projects have absorbed 2.098 million people in employment, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%. Among them, 1.696 million rural laborers have been absorbed into employment, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%. For example, during the peak period of the Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project in the Beibu Gulf area, about 800 people were involved in design, scientific research and construction engineering, and currently there are more than 9,700 people working on site.

The construction of water conservancy projects not only stabilizes employment but also continuously releases benefits to the public. The person in charge of the Water Affairs Bureau of Linxiang District, Lincang City, Yunnan Province, introduced that this year, the district has actively promoted the construction of urban and rural water supply integration, enabling areas with conditions to extend urban water supply pipelines to rural areas, and optimize the layout of water network, water plant, and household pipeline projects. So far, 628 rural drinking water safety consolidation and improvement projects have been completed, covering a water supply population of 231,600 people, with a total investment of 130 million yuan.

Xu Dezhi introduced that this year, the Ministry of Water Resources has fully implemented the "3+1" standardized construction and management model of rural water supply. On the one hand, it guides various regions to seize the opportunity of national water network construction, prioritize the integration of urban and rural water supply in suburban areas, vigorously promote the scale of centralized water supply, and promote urban infrastructure and public services to extend to rural areas. Compared with last year, the number of national scale projects has increased by more than 1,300; on the other hand, it fully implements the county-wide unified management of rural water supply and consolidates the achievements of existing rural water supply projects. As of the end of August, 93 billion yuan of rural water supply construction investment has been implemented, 17,700 rural water supply projects have been started, and the water supply guarantee level of 38.46 million rural populations has been improved.

A circular and orderly national water network can fully release the comprehensive benefits of water conservancy projects, effectively enhance the ability of water resource allocation, and provide strong water support for economic and social development.

The main skeleton and arteries of the national water network are accelerating the improvement, and the lifeline role of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is fully played. Since the water supply, the first phase of the East and Central Routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has transferred a total of 75.2 billion cubic meters of water, directly benefiting a population of 185 million people. At the same time, the construction of provincial and municipal county-level water networks is promoted in coordination, and provincial water network major projects such as the Jilin Water Network backbone project and the Chongqing Yuxi Water Resources Allocation Project are accelerating construction. Currently, 83% of the municipal-level and 50% of the county-level water network construction plans have been formulated and are actively promoting the implementation of planned projects.

Wang Bao'en said that next, the Ministry of Water Resources will, while doing a good job in flood control, typhoon prevention, and drought resistance, work with relevant departments and localities to seize the favorable opportunity after the main flood season, vigorously promote the construction of water conservancy infrastructure, and ensure the completion of the annual target tasks.