Xinhua News Agency, Hohhot, July 5th Title: The Change of the Great River — — Focus on Three New Changes of Yellow River Regulation
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ding Ming, Wei Yuyu and Zhang Sheng
The water of the Yellow River, a vast soup, rushes down from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and flows eastward into the sea, watering the 5,000-year-old civilization of China and nourishing generations of Chinese sons and daughters.
Since the founding of New China 70 years ago, the Party has led the people to manage, protect and develop the Yellow River, and the Yellow River has embarked on a benign development road of a big river with smooth rivers, green banks and a peaceful and happy life in the basin.
The Yellow River flows smoothly.
For the Yellow River water flowing eastward, there is a chant in Tang poetry that "the Yellow River water has no time". However, the Yellow River is not "endless", and the river was cut off many times at the end of last century.
Ke Sujuan, director of the Water Dispatching Division of the Water Resources Management and Dispatching Bureau of the Yellow River Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, said that the Yellow River was cut off, which was affected by the shortage of water resources and also related to the lack of unified dispatching management and disorderly water use along the Yellow River.
In order to alleviate the contradiction of competing water use between the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River basin, the state has implemented unified water regulation of the Yellow River. In 1987, the State Council approved the Water Supply Allocation Scheme of the Yellow River, which carried out highly centralized administrative allocation of water rights of the Yellow River. In 1998, the "Management Measures for Water Dispatching of the Yellow River" came into effect, and the Yellow River began to implement unified dispatching and total control to meet the demand, ending the history of disorderly water use in various provinces along the Yellow River. In 2006, the Yellow River Water Regulation was officially promulgated and implemented by the State Council, and the effective measures in practice were fixed and standardized in the form of laws and regulations.
Since 1999, the main stream of the Yellow River has been uninterrupted for 20 consecutive years. Unified regulation of water resources in the Yellow River basin provides experience for solving the problem of water cut-off in large rivers at home and abroad.
A few days ago, the reporter drove more than 2,600 kilometers upstream from Huayuankou, a suburb of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, to Lanzhou, Gansu Province, and saw the Yellow River rushing into the deep mountain canyon with the momentum of thousands of people, and slowly flowing in the Woye Plain. In the continuous moistening of the river, the ecological environment along the coast has been restored, and many oases have been formed in the floodplain area, in which waterfowl fly.
Tongguan Hydrological Station is near the intersection of the Yellow River and Weihe River, which is the edge of the Loess Plateau. According to Zhang Tongqiang, the stationmaster, in the water dispatching year of 2017-2018, the water inflow in the middle reaches of the Yellow River was 34% less than that in the same period of many years, and the river runoff in Tongguan section remained normal, with the average annual flow far exceeding the warning flow of 50 cubic meters per second.
Toudaoguai Hydrological Station is located at the dividing point of the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, adjacent to the Millennium Ancient Crossing — — Hekou Town, Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the latest measured data released by the station, the minimum daily average flow of Toudaoguai section in the water dispatching year of 2017-2018 is 141 cubic meters per second, which is more than twice of the early warning flow of cutoff prevention, and no early warning event of small flow occurred in the whole year.
Although the main stream of the Yellow River has been flowing smoothly for 20 years, there are still problems such as river siltation and suspended river on the ground. In the past 20 years, the inflow of water from the Yellow River has generally decreased, and the water consumption on both sides of the Yellow River has been increasing, resulting in a decrease in the amount of sand washing in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, an increase in siltation in the main channel, and a suspended river in the suspended river, forming a "secondary suspended river".
Experts on the Yellow River told the reporter that although the joint operation of large-scale water conservancy projects on the Yellow River resulted in the amount of sediment scouring and silting in the river, the downstream river channel was still two or three meters higher than the beach surface, and the short-term concentrated rainstorm in flood season might cause the river channel to overflow, which might lead to the risk of bank break.
Green dyed "Ji" word bay
The middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River flow through the Loess Plateau, forming a zigzag bay. In the northeast of Jizi Bay, there is a colorful distribution area of soft sandstone, which is the most ecologically fragile area in the Yellow River Basin — — Zhungeer Banner in Inner Mongolia is also a concentrated source area of coarse sediment in the Yellow River.
In 1980s, Zhungeer Banner successively carried out projects such as ecological control of seabuckthorn sediment reduction in soft sandstone, construction of warping dams on the Loess Plateau, and comprehensive control of small watersheds. More than 30 years have passed, and the governance area has already been completely transformed.
In the late spring, the reporter came to Zhungeer Banner, where the colorful sandstone was covered with a green coat made of seabuckthorn, Pinus tabulaeformis and Prunus armeniaca, dotted with pink and white apricot flowers, with a fragrant smell.
Wu Zhiqiang, deputy director of Zhungeer Banner Water Resources Bureau, said that through biological measures such as planting trees and grass and engineering measures such as building warping dams, the degree of soil and water conservation in Zhungeer Banner has reached 60%, and the vegetation coverage rate has reached 74%.
The control area of soft sandstone in Zhungeer Banner is the epitome of ecological control in the Loess Plateau. In order to study the law of soil and water loss on the Loess Plateau, the Yellow Committee set up three scientific experimental stations for soil and water conservation in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, Qingyang City and Suide County, Shaanxi Province in the 1940s and 1950s.
Tianshui Soil and Water Conservation Scientific Experimental Station is the first one in China. Su Guangxu, director of the Soil and Water Conservation Experimental Base, who has been working in Tianshui Experimental Station for 38 years, introduced that Liangjiaping Experimental Site here carried out the earliest experimental research on mountain orchards in China in 1951, and Longwanggou Experimental Site established the first original seed nursery for soil and water conservation forage in the Yellow River Basin.
Li Jianwen, 52, has never forgotten the scene of catching rabbits and digging out bird’s nests in Nanxiaohegou Experimental Site of Xifeng Soil and Water Conservation Scientific Experimental Station in Qingyang City where his father worked as a child. When he grew up, his son came here to work in his father’s footsteps, and now he has become the deputy director of the proving ground.
He said: "In today’s South Xiaohe Valley, the deep and shallow green is endless, the degree of soil erosion control has reached 87%, and the forest and grass coverage rate is 84.5%. Now that the forest is deep and the trees are dense, it is not easy to catch rabbits. "
The Yulin area of northern Shaanxi, where Suide Scientific Experimental Station of Soil and Water Conservation is located, is located in the transition zone between the southern edge of Mu Us Sandy Land and the Loess Plateau. "The mountain is bald, and there are no trees on the beach. The yellow sand is rolling, and ten ploughs and nine harvests are not collected. " A local jingle was once ecologically fragile.
After years of management, Yulin is now full of greenery, the forest coverage rate has increased to 33%, and the green map of northern Shaanxi has advanced more than 400 kilometers to the north.
Wang Fugui, deputy director of the Science and Technology Department of the Yellow River Upper and Middle Reaches Administration Bureau, said: "Through the comprehensive control project of soil and water conservation in small watersheds for 70 years, the loess plateau has completed the initial control of soil and water loss with an area of about 230,000 square kilometers, and the coverage rate of forest and grass vegetation has generally increased by 10%-30%. Once yellow ‘ A few ’ Ziwan is full of vitality, and this piece of green is constantly extending on both sides of the Yellow River. "
Kubuqi Desert, Mu Us Sandy Land and Wulanbuhe Desert, which are distributed on both sides of the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River, are "big sand basins" along the "Ji" Bay of the Yellow River. Nowadays, an ecological miracle from yellow to green is also being staged here.
In Guanjing Village, Dalat Banner, Inner Mongolia, on the southern edge of Kubuqi Desert, there was only one willow tree left in the 1980s. Now, after treatment, the village is surrounded by green forests, and a tree has become a forest of 190,000 mu … …
The ecological control rate of Kubuqi desert has reached 25%, realizing the transformation of "green manure and yellow thinness". Its successful practice in combating desertification has been written into the Ordos Declaration jointly drafted by the representatives of the parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
Soil and water conservation measures make the "Ji" Bay green, but there are also dangers hidden in the green. Zhang Jinliang, chairman of the Yellow River Survey, Planning, Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., said that soil and water conservation measures only work under a certain level of rainfall. Once excessive rainfall occurs, the warping dam may be washed away, and all the accumulated sediment will be washed away, but the soil erosion will increase, resulting in the risk of "zero deposit and whole withdrawal" of sediment.
In July, 1998, a torrential rain washed away the soil and water conservation warping dam in Xiliugou Valley, Erdos City, Inner Mongolia, forming a flood with a sediment concentration of 1,350 kilograms per cubic meter. The flood with high sediment concentration flowed into the Yellow River, forming a giant sand dam to cut off the Yellow River.
"Ecological management on both sides of the Yellow River will always be on the road, and ecological restoration will take a long time." Wang Fugui said that soil erosion in the Loess Plateau is complicated and difficult to treat, and sediment deposition in the Yellow River has always been a major problem in harnessing the Yellow River.
Tame the glacier
In mid-March 1951, the spring breeze swept across the northern land, and the frozen Yellow River began to "wake up".
At this time, there is still a thick ice layer in the Inner Mongolia river section at high latitude, and the upstream flow is blocked in the river, forming a giant ice dam in Taer Bay in Hetao area, which is in danger of overflowing and bursting at any time.
Cai Ziping, deputy magistrate of Micang County (now Hangjinhou Banner, Bayannaoer City), who was in charge of the ice prevention on the levee, was very anxious when he saw the water level remained high. Someone suggested, "If only an airplane could blow up the ice dam."
Cai Ziping will immediately report the proposal step by step. The phone call soon reached Beijing, and when the central leaders heard the news, they immediately sent air force bombers to fly over Tal Bay to blast the ice dam and lift the danger. From then on, yellow river ice Middle School began to use aircraft to blow up ice to remove danger.
The ice flood of the Yellow River is caused by the fact that the downstream latitude is higher than the upstream latitude, the closure of the river is not synchronized, and the ice jam blocks the river course, which mostly occurs in Ningmeng section and Shandong section, and the ice flood in Ningmeng section is the most serious.
According to historical records, during the 100-year period from 1855 to 1955, there were 29 years of ice flood in Shandong section of the Yellow River, with nearly 100 breaches. On average, there are about 20 ice jams and dams in Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River every year, and ice flood disasters of different degrees occur almost every year.
"For more than 70 years since the people ruled the Yellow River, the struggle against Lingxun has never stopped." Wei Xiangyang, deputy director of the Flood and Drought Disaster Prevention Bureau of the Yellow River Committee, said that in 2000, after the Xiaolangdi Reservoir was put into operation, the threat of ice flood in the downstream was basically lifted. After the Haibowan Water Control Project began to adjust and control in 2014, the threat of ice flood in the upstream was partially alleviated.
Longyangxia, Liujiaxia, Xiaolangdi and other water control projects have a total storage capacity of 60 billion cubic meters, which effectively played the role of "reservoir" and "regulator" during the flood season. The construction and joint operation of reservoirs in the main and tributaries of the Yellow River provide a strong guarantee for An Lan in flood season. After Xiaolangdi Reservoir was put into use in 2000, supplemented by Sanmenxia Reservoir, Luhun Reservoir, Guxian Reservoir, Hekou Village and other reservoirs, the once-in-a-thousand-year flood peak at Huayuankou can be reduced from 42,300 cubic meters per second to 22,600 cubic meters per second.
Reservoir dispatching, river engineering, scientific monitoring and other measures take a multi-pronged approach, which not only effectively defends the ice flood, but also ensures that An Lan will be old in the peach flood and the autumn flood, and writes valuable experience in river management.
Tianjitai Village, Wuyuan County, Inner Mongolia, is a small village near the Yellow River, which was threatened by the Yellow River flood frequently.
Fu Ersheng, a 78-year-old villager, experienced two floods and destroyed his home. "The first time was when I was in my twenties in the 1960s, I heard ‘ Rumble ’ The sound of water ran out before it was too late to clean up. " Fu Ersheng said that the flood washed away more than half of the village, and the villagers rebuilt their houses on the highlands and built levees by the river.
However, in the early 1990s, a flood broke the levee and flooded the village, so the villagers had to move again.
"Accustomed to the rising water of the Yellow River, the water rose, so we rushed the livestock to ‘ Gedan ’ Come back when the water drops. " Fu Ersheng said.
In the western dialect of Inner Mongolia, "Gedan" refers to the raised highland on the plain. Threatened by floods, many local villages are built on high places, named as "Li Gen Gedan", "Yunjia Gedan" and "Pifang Gedan" … …
Now, the reporter came to the "Gedan" village near the Yellow River, only to see the river flowing quietly, the wind blowing wheat waves on the shore, cattle and sheep in groups, and laughter coming from the farmhouse.
"The prevention and control of floods and droughts in the Yellow River has a long way to go, and we can’t relax for a while." Wei Xiangyang said. At present, although the high-standard dikes have put a golden bell on the Yellow River, the standards of dike construction in some areas in the upper reaches are not high, and the dangerous works and control projects in the lower reaches have not been adjusted in time according to the changes of river water and sediment, and the binding force on wandering reaches needs to be strengthened. The Yellow River management still needs the continuous struggle of generations of Yellow River children.