2023-06-01 20:51:29
Peking (ots/PRNewswire) – BEIJING, June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/– About three-quarters of Beijing’s water supply comes from a reservoir located more than 1,000 kilometers south of the Chinese capital.
This reservoir is Danjiangkou, the starting point of the middle route of China’s South-North Water Diversion Project, the largest of its kind in the world. The water level of the Hanjiang River reservoir was raised 14.60 meters to 176.60 meters, allowing gravity-driven water to flow down to the drought-prone north. According to China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the huge project has benefited more than 150 million people over the past eight years.
The South-North Water Diversion Project has three routes. The middle route is the most important of the three due to its role in supplying water to the country’s capital. It begins at Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China’s Hubei Province and runs through Henan and Hebei Provinces before reaching the cities of Beijing and Tianjin. The water supply started in December 2014.
The eastern route began operating in November 2013 and carries water from east China’s Jiangsu Province to areas such as Tianjin City and Shandong Province.
The western route is in the planning phase and has yet to be built.
The construction of such a mega-project represents an enormous challenge for every country, with the difficulties ranging from technology and environmental protection to the massive resettlement of residents along the routes.
In Xichuan County, Nanyang City, Henan Province, 367,000 people were relocated for the project.
The residents of Zouzhuang Village in the county, who used to grow corn and wheat, now make a living cultivating kiwifruit orchards. Thanks to local official support, they are making more money than before, according to Zou Yuhua, a village official.
How might China overcome these difficulties and make this mega project a reality? Many factors contribute to this achievement, but the key lies in the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“As long as the basic principles are adhered to, all work will work,” Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said at the launch session of a campaign on party history learning and education in February 2021, stressing the importance of it to uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee.
The magic of China
“As long as the basic principles are observed, all work can be implemented.”
This statement comes from “Lyu Shi Chun Qiu” or “Master Lyu’s Spring and Autumn Annals”, a comprehensive Chinese classical text written around 239 BC. It was compiled under the auspices of Lyu Buwei, the prime minister of the Qin Kingdom. It literally means that when you undo the mainline of a web, everything falls into place, indicating that you must grasp the key of the entire situation in order to bring everything under control and get the desired result.
The proverb captures the logic behind China’s political system today and explains why the country is capable of delivering mega-projects like the South-North Water Diversion Project. In the Chinese system, Party cells play a key role everywhere, from the top down to the villages, in the economy and society. Thus, under the leadership of the CCP, the entire society works in the same direction and serves the interests of the people.
The magic of China is that solidarity among its 1.4 billion people makes difficult goals achievable.
“We must uphold and strengthen the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee,” Xi said while delivering the report to the 20th CPC National Congress last October.
“We will improve the leadership systems through which the Party exercises overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all sides,” he said. “This will maintain the Party’s solidarity and unity.”
The Party leadership is the key to the smooth resettlement of villagers in Xichuan County. To help them build a new and better life, the local authorities provide technical training for planting kiwi fruit orchards and organize joint sales through a cooperative. According to Zou Yuhua, Zouzhuang Village intends to expand the orchard from the current 33 to 40 hectares to 200 hectares in the future.
The villagers are happy with what they have today. “Now almost every family owns a car,” Zou said, describing the resettlement as a good opportunity for villagers.
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Jiang Simin,
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cgtn@cgtn.com
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