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Irrigation works must be upgraded

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-16 07:34

The current severe drought disaster shows China's longstanding problem in farmland water conservancy infrastructure, says an article on the website www.gmw.cn. The following is an excerpt:

As China is being hit by a drought not seen in five decades, a problem is surfacing: Our country's irrigation and farmland water conservancy infrastructure has long been overused, leading to the ineffectiveness of drought-relief campaigns in many regions.

As the lifeline for agriculture, farmland water conservancy facilities in China are generally used beyond the date when they should have been replaced with new ones or repaired to their normal conditions. The worn-out facilities have left many farmlands unable to retain water and added to the difficulty of fighting against drought despite the usage of modern water-pumping machines and well-digging expediencies. As a result, even rainfall-rich provinces like Hunan and Jiangxi are facing the threat of water crisis.

Various factors have caused this problem. For a long time, the country has invested little capital into the water conservancy projects. The limited capital earmarked for this sector has not been managed and used well. What's more, the breakdown of collective farmland system makes unified maintenance of water facilities impossible.

The drought actually is sounding an alarm to us that if we continue to overlook the maintenance of irrigation and water conservancy facilities, food safety and the lives of our people will be put under direct threat.

(China Daily 02/16/2009 page4)