The "World Granary" is thirsty for huge investment in irrigation and water conservancy and limited results.

"I haven't been home since the beginning of summer. I've been repairing wells all over the place, eating and living on the construction site." Xu Bingchang, the head of the engineering team who has been engaged in well washing in Henan for many years, told the Huaxia Times.

Henan, known as the "granary of the world", is experiencing the worst drought in 63 years.

In order to make an appointment with Xu Bingchang, the reporter drove nearly 100 kilometers to "catch up" a new well construction site that he had just arrived. The well, which needs to be repaired by Xu Bingchang, is an old well drilled in the 1970s, located in Zhong Wang Village, Shixiang Township, Changge City, and had to be reused because of the drought.

"in the past, we didn't pay attention to the quality of wells. Last year, we sometimes couldn't get a job of repairing wells in a month. Now, after the severe drought, everyone is worried." Xu Bingchang said that the drought not seen in many years and the uneven quality standards of water conservancy projects are affecting the effectiveness of drought resistance.

The dry Central Plains

Tsukwang Village is lucky that there are old wells that can be repaired and reused, while the continuous drought in Pingdingshan and Luoyang in Henan Province has made "ten wells and nine dry" in many places, and drinking water for people and animals in higher-lying areas has even become difficult, and autumn crops are irrigated without water.

On August 14, our reporter saw in several villages in the west of Anliang Town, Yixian County, that the crops that should have been green are now barren in the farmland on both sides of the road.

The bottom of the Xigou Reservoir, located near Duangou Village, Anliang Town, has been dry and cracked, and dead fish can be seen on the exposed cracked land from time to time. At present, seven reservoirs in Anliang Town, including Xigou Reservoir, have all dried up.

"as the drought has already occurred in the first half of the year, after the summer grain harvest, the drought is already very serious, so most farmers can no longer grow autumn grain." Local villagers said that the crops had no water to irrigate, but had no choice but to abandon the grain fields.

According to the data provided by the flood control and drought relief headquarters of Yixian County to this newspaper, the precipitation from June to July this year is 30.4mm, which is only 12% of that of 245.4 mm in a normal year. Due to the lack of Rain Water in recent years, coupled with a long period of drought and lack of rain this year, high temperature and large evaporation, the county suffered the worst drought since 1961.

At present, 21 of the 22 reservoirs in Yixian County have dried up, 13 rivers have been cut off, 3700 eyes of 8353 irrigation wells have dried up, and the groundwater level has dropped by more than 15 meters on average. 162400 people in the county have varying degrees of draught difficulties, of which 32300 have serious difficulties in drinking water.

Not only in Yixian County, Henan Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Pingdingshan, Zhoukou and other prefectures and cities, have encountered varying degrees of drought.

Henan officials reported on the 13th that the direct economic losses in Henan caused by the drought exceeded 7.2 billion yuan, of which the agricultural economic losses were 7 billion yuan.

The disaster Relief Department of Henan Civil Affairs Department said on the 13th that there were 19.29 million people affected by drought and 1.18 million people in need of living assistance due to drought, of which 1.14 million people needed assistance due to drought and drinking water, and the area affected by crops was 2163 thousand hectares, of which there was no harvest of 186,000 hectares. resulting in direct economic losses of 7.289 billion yuan, including agricultural economic losses of 7.08 billion yuan. A week ago, the economic loss was 4.009 billion yuan, and the agricultural loss was 3.377 billion yuan.

A severe drought

Since the beginning of the flood season this year, the average rainfall in Henan Province has been 96 mm, 60% less than the average for the same period of many years (240 mm). Especially since June, the average rainfall in the province is only 90.2 mm, the lowest since 1951, showing a severe meteorological drought.

In addition, there has been a wide range of high temperatures in Henan province since July, reaching more than 40 ℃ in the northwest and central and western regions on July 21, with 42.9 ℃ in Mengzhou station the highest in the province, breaking the historical extreme value. Nearly 35% of the province's small reservoirs have basically dried up, and there is no water available for agricultural irrigation.

At the end of July, the spreading drought caused the drought area of autumn grain in Henan to reach 23.1 million mu, and water supply crisis occurred in some cities and towns. The Henan Flood Control and drought Relief headquarters launched the province's Ⅲ emergency response for drought relief.

Not only in Henan, the weather of high temperature and drought is superimposed this year, the scope of drought is wide, and the drought is developing rapidly. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture show that drought has occurred to varying degrees in 12 provinces and regions, including Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang. This year, the drought is mainly concentrated in Pingdingshan, Luoyang, Luohe, Xuchang, Jiaozuo, Langfang, Cangzhou, Baoding, Tangshan, Shaanxi, and other places in Hebei Province. Henan is the hardest hit area of this drought, and the affected area is nearly half of the country's affected area.

Recently, Rain Water has come to welcome showers and thirsty farmland in most parts of Henan. The reporter learned from the office of the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters on 11 August that according to the latest statistics, the drought-affected area of autumn crops in Henan Province was 12.69 million mu, 14.45 million mu less than the statistics on August 4.

Although the recent precipitation has a significant effect on alleviating the drought in Henan Province, it is of little help to improve the drinking water difficulties of the population in the hilly areas of Pingdingshan, Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Luoyang and Nanyang. According to statistics on August 10, 592000 people and 76300 head of large livestock in the province still suffer from temporary drinking water difficulties.

"natural disaster" or "man-made disaster"?

A peasant proverb often says, "whether there is a harvest or not depends on water." In the face of the worst drought in years, artificial irrigation is very important, and the role of water conservancy projects is even more important.

For the traditional agricultural province of Henan, water resources are very important. Although Henan has invested heavily in irrigation and water conservancy construction for many years, the situation of "weak foundation, too many debts and overall tightness" is still widespread.

In the course of the interview, our reporter found that in areas with better water conservancy facilities, the drought is relatively mild, and the crops are growing relatively well. Where the land is barren or the crops are withered and yellow, most of the water conservancy facilities are imperfect or have been damaged and cannot be used.

On August 13, the reporter saw on both sides of the road in Duzhuang Village, Zhangde Township, Yuzhou City, that the corn in the farmland grew very short and some of it had withered and yellow. A villager of Duzhuang village told the reporter: "in recent years, many wells have been drilled in our village, all of which have been invested by the state, but the water level is not enough for the villagers to use."

On the north side of Tongcun, Zhongtou Town, Yixian County, a small area of farmland is surrounded by three machine well rooms. Villager Li told the reporter angrily: "Don't look at so many machine well rooms, but they just can't be used." In villages such as Lanyu Village, Zhongtou Town, Yixian County, many local villagers have questioned the construction planning, standards and project quality of irrigation and water conservancy facilities.

According to a reporter's survey, in recent years, the relevant departments of the state and provinces, cities, and counties have invested a lot in agricultural water conservancy facilities, and irrigation and water conservancy alone, there are water conservancy, land, poverty alleviation, agriculture, agricultural development and other departments have carried out investment and construction one after another.

Take Zhongtou Town, Yixian County as an example: in 2012, the investment in water conservancy facilities is 13.51 million yuan for agricultural comprehensive development of high-standard farmland construction demonstration project, 8 million yuan for modern agricultural production project and 3.5 million yuan for dry farming and water-saving agricultural demonstration base construction project. Tsuktou Township alone has as much as 25.01 million yuan in construction funds in one year.

If it is said that some water conservancy facilities cannot be used properly is caused by natural causes such as "natural disasters", then the irrigation and water conservancy facilities in some places are completely "man-made disasters".

In Liuzhai Town, Xinmi City, Henan Province, a 2009 comprehensive agricultural development project has been completely changed. The public notice of the construction of the project shows that through the development of a comprehensive agricultural development project with an additional irrigated area of 3500 mu, drought and waterlogging, and complete agricultural facilities, the annual grain production capacity can be increased by 1 million kg and the agricultural output value by 2 million yuan.

However, our reporter saw Cui Laozhuang in Liuzhai Town, Xinmi City, within the scope of the project area, that the water conservancy facilities marked with "comprehensive agricultural development" were seriously damaged. The agricultural comprehensive development project area, which aims to support grain production and improve agricultural production capacity, has become the development area of a real estate company in Henan.

In Zhukou Town, Taikang County, Henan Province, the irrigation facilities of the small-scale irrigation project invested by the state in the town in 2013 have also been unavailable, making it impossible to irrigate farmland and harming the interests of local farmers.

Under the influence of extreme weather factors, if the construction of irrigation and water conservancy lags behind or lack of supervision, it will inevitably affect the effect of drought resistance and disaster reduction. How to strictly control the quality standards in the process of project planning and construction, how to improve the matching, acceptance and handover of the project, and how to improve the ability of maintenance and management in the later stage are the key issues that water conservancy facilities can play a real role.

"We should pay attention to the development of water-saving agriculture, improve the construction standards of irrigation and water conservancy facilities, and change from an extensive mode of agricultural production to an intensive one." The relevant person in charge of the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture said, "We should not forget the drought and dig wells again in the face of drought."