Water diversion project brings many benefits

One of the destinations water is diverted to is my hometown of Weihai in the most easterly part of Shandong province.

Facing the sea in all directions but the west, Weihai was once plagued by a water shortage.

The makeshift tank on our tractor bed, which was made from thin plastic, could only hold about 5 cu m of water. After filling it up, my father drove the tractor to our farmland about 2 kilometers away to water corn seedlings, which were severely parched due to persistent drought.

There was no cover for the tank, so after bumping along a rugged country road for about 10 minutes, we had lost at least 0.5 cu m of water.

Each of the corn seedlings on our 0.13 hectares of farmland could only be given water from two large ladles made from gourds.

My father and I were not alone in fetching water from the small pond, and it was quite a chaotic scene. There were so many tractors that it took at least five minutes to escape the traffic jams, although the size of the pond could be compared to that of a basketball court.

Such scenes were familiar to residents in Weihai, who had been fighting drought for generations.

Key points

On a big screen at the water diversion project's control center, a large electronic map shows key points on the eastern route. One end of the route is the Mishan Reservoir in Weihai, which I am familiar with, as my grandfather-in-law helped build it.