Building Irrigation Works in Tibet

Medog is the only county in China with no highway access. The government invested heavily in the construction of such highways, but the efforts failed because of frequent landslides and mud-rock flows. To date, the goods and materials needed by the county still need to be transported by being carried on shoulders over snowy mountains, passing through the places with frequent landslide and primitive woods, and threading a narrow way along cliffs.

With the implementation of the 10th Five-Year Plan, the Tibet Autonomous Region decided to build the Yadong and Bebeng power stations. Because the geology of Medog County is very complicated, the TAR was very concerned about the design and the construction process.

Highest "Water Official"

One day, the desolate small town was filled with cheer. People came out into the streets and jubilantly awaited the arrival of a very high "water official". He was none other than Teng Jianren, chief of the 9th Aid Tibet Group of the Ministry of Water Resources.

Teng went to Tibet together with Li Yong, a noted engineer, to settle outstanding problems related to the power station construction. However, it is not an easy thing to get into Medog, in particular, surmounting Garlung Snowy Mountain.

Although a highly experienced geologist, it was the first time for Teng to engage in this kind of travel full of hardships and dangers in crossing steep, snowy mountains, with the difficulty of breathing because of shortage of oxygen, raging winds constantly sandpapering the face, and seemingly bottomless ravines yawning below one's feet. All he could do was to follow others to climb step by step along the footprints in the path filled with heavy snow.

When seeing the arrival of Teng Jianren, Li Yong and the group traveling together, Medog County Party secretary was almost overwhelmed. He held the hands of Teng Jianren for more than ten minutes, repeatedly saying: "Thank you, Thank you!"

To learn the situation concerning the state of irrigation works, as well as finding out about the most urgent problems facing Tibetan farmers and herder as soon as possible, the first thing that Teng Jianren did on arriving in Tibet in July 2004 was to travel to the countryside. Within a year, he had been to over 50 counties, even to the most remote Ngari Area and Shuanghu Special Area in Nagqu with a notoriously bad climate.

As a Deputy Director of the Water Commission managing all the preparatory work of the project, Teng Jianren has a great deal of business to handle every day, and even at weekends he still continues to work. Once, after he drove several hundreds kilometers to the spot to review the design plan for a power plant in Qamdo Area, he found it was slated to be built in an area that would threaten the stability of the river bank. He urged the unit concerned to redesign it. The site was raised over 70 meters and built on a rock base to ensure the security of the bank, which saved some 2 million Yuan of investment.

So far, Teng Jianren has successively completed the development plan of the "10th Five-Year Plan" for Tibet irrigation works and 15 special plans for irrigation works, and worked to incorporate the preparatory work of the project into the basic construction procedure as well as ensuring that everything complies with State regulations and criteria.

Convincing Specialist

"This is an authentic specialist, who looks into a problem very precisely and makes a just conclusion. That makes people admire him". Speaking of Li Chuangfu (sent by Ministry of Water Resources to be Vice-Chief Engineer with the TAR Water Commission) Lhunzhub, Deputy Director of the Xigaze Water Bureau, became very excited .

Li Chuangfu, after graduation from university in 1985, was put in charge of quality control of construction-site and flood control of the Yellow River. In July 2004, he was selected by the organization to aid Tibet for his present post to assist the chief engineer to take charge of the comprehensive technology work. Once, he was asked to lead the group to Nyingchi to investigate an embankment collapse on the Nyang Qu River in Bayi Town.

Li Chuangfu led the specialist group to review the drawing carefully, read the materials related to construction and learned about the current situation of project construction and management. Then, he visited the spot to investigate and gain first-hand knowledge.

Li Chuangfu clearly knows that it is impractical to completely conform to State regulations and rules because, under the influence of factors such as the special natural geographical conditions in Tibet and so on, there are sometimes problems that don't occur in the hinterland.

He still carried on investigations of all sorts on the project construction, inquired from the people engaged in the construction and the witnesses of the accident and sought the comments and opinions of the responsible people concerned. On this basis, he discussed the issue with specialists before making the decision.

At the meeting, he said the flood didn't surpass the standards designed for flood control, and the objective reason for the embankment collapse was that the foundations of the embankment had been seriously eroded by digging the river channel at random, so all the construction parties concerned should bear the liability. He explained that this meant the unit engaged in the construction, the party entrusted by the owner to supervise the construction by professional construction and management, the design unit and the owner. Although the owner took part in the public bidding according to State requirements, he didn't make any attempt to reduce the designing standard, plus he was the party bearing the general responsibility.

Based on the evidence and according to the relevant State regulations and rules, Li Chuangfu interpreted the conclusion made by the specialist group through their investigation.

Unexpectedly, all the parties concerned agreed. In the same way, Li Chuangfu succeeded in dealing with another embankment collapse in Namling County in the Xigaze Area. After the investigation results were promulgated, all parties engaged the construction completely acknowledged their responsibility without any objection.

After several months, Deng Laiqing, Director of the Xigaze Prefectural Water Bureau, still gratefully said the Water Commission has done a good job to help solve a difficult problem.

For over a year, the program reviewed by Li Chuangfu has saved more than 8 million Yuan through optimizing the design. In the meantime, he actively rectified defects in some program design structures so as to avoid possible hidden troubles.

Strict Quality Supervisor

Li Yong, the Vice-Chief Engineer, was sent by the Ministry of Water Resources to the TAR Water Commission. In November 2005, he visited a power plant and quickly realized the channel conducting the water from the plant didn't reach the required quality standard.

He summoned a meeting immediately and insisted that this particular part of the project be dismantled.

Thus, Li Yong overcame the first difficulty that he met after moving to Tibet. Subsequently, he proved to be a very strict man on the problems of project quality.

In the middle of October 2005, when coming from a rural area in Qamdo Prefecture, he passed by some power plant and went to learn about its situation. At that time, the construction was almost completed.

He was exasperated by what he saw. In order to speed up the project, the construction team had neglected basic procedure. The sand and stones transported from the river were directly churned up to make cement without undergoing thorough selection and cleaning; materials of all sorts were neither marked with the proportion of the elements they contained nor properly measured, and the constructors were adding sand and water simply based on their experience and estimation.

Li Yong ordered that the construction work must stop immediately, and it could only be resumed according to after a thorough examination by the Institute of Quality Inspection.

Because the altitude of the building site was high, it was approaching the end of the year, and the temperature had fallen very low; if the construction continued, it would be possible to generate electricity by the end of the year. Otherwise, it could resume after the rise in temperature in the last ten days of the following April. Regarding stopping the construction immediately, even people in the same occupation with Li Yong disagreed. They stressed the importance of ensuring that the local people could get access to electricity as early as possible.

Li Yong said: "Quality inspection plays a key role before and during construction. After the project has been finished, you can't dismantle it very easily or there will be great loss. If the quality doesn't reach the standard so that it can't function properly, then why do we build it? It is true that the date when it will function will come later than that we expected, but the quality is guaranteed, which is truly responsible for the investment by the state and the locals."

Finally, the project was stopped at his insistence while the quality control department carried out a comprehensive inspection.

At the end of the last year, TAR departments including the Water Commission, the Development and Reform Commission, the Financial Commission and so on combined to check the reinforcing project of some reservoir in Lhasa before acceptance. At first sight it had a very good appearance and surrounding environment, so everyone praised it and thought it could be evaluated as a brilliant project.

As the director of the Examination and Acceptance Committee, Li Yong repeatedly observed the dam himself and, in the end, found that the bank had subsided a little. Subsequently, he found the spillway had also subsided.

When finally assessing the grade of the project, a vast majority of staff including specialists, leaders of the government of Lhasa City and County and workers of the irrigation works Bureau in city and county agreed that some sinking of the bank was a normal phenomenon and the sinking of the spillway might be the result of the construction procedures; so, it should be evaluated as a brilliant project.

Despite being under such huge pressure from many specialists and city and county leaders, Li Yong didn't compromise and said: "You argue that a certain sinking of the bank in the construction is normal. I admit it, but do you know when it begins to sink and at how fast it is sinking? Now, we still haven't established whether there is a subsidence curve, whether the sinking is even or not, and whether it is stable, so how we can evaluate it as a brilliant project? From now on, we will observe it once every half month, and until this time of next year, if the sinking of the bank is even and stable, then we could evaluate it as a brilliant project."

At last, all agreed to evaluate it along these lines.

After the event, Li Yong said: "As a Vice-Chief Engineer of the Water Commission, maybe the projects with bad quality could smoothly pass because of a word from me. If it brings heavy disaster to the state and people consequently, what can I do in that situation? I am responsible to the State, the Party and the people in tibet and for the image of cadres aiding Tibet; I am also responsible for myself because I know the importance of the quality of the project for me.

Rescuing Mission in the Forbidden Zone

Ma Xinguo comes from Shandong Water Bureau of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources. With over 20 years of experience in maintaining machine, currently, he is appointed as the deputy head of team forming part of the rescue group for flexible flood prevention.

In August 2005, the area of an ice lake in Tinggyi County of Xigaze obviously increased with a danger of collapse. People living downriver became anxious and withdrew from their villages to live in tents temporarily set up.

To thoroughly eliminate the threat and ensure people could live and work in peace and without fear, the TAR Water Commission decided to tackle the danger posed by this ice lake. That was an unprecedented tough task, because the altitude of the lake was 5,600 meters. Very few local people had ever been to the place. At that time, there was a vice-magistrate in the county leading group send to the ice lake to survey the danger. He spent three days on horseback on the way there and back.

There was no highway to the area and there were no detailed materials about the geology of the lake and its surrounds. Every leader of the rescue team clearly knew that if their action failed, they would bear a heavy responsibility for the ensuring disaster.

"Let me go!" Ma Xinguo stood up and spoke out bravely.

"There are no people other than myself suited to do this work, because, with his high blood pressure and heart disease, leader Cheng cannot go. In addition, I have had decades of experience in engineering and rescue work with the Shandong Water Bureau."

After prudent research, the rescue team acceded to Ma's request. But if his health wasn't up to the task he would be withdrawn immediately.

On August 27th, 2005, as the leader of the rescue team, Ma led over 30 people to the ice lake where they faced arduous work.

To get their engine to the ice lake, they would have first have to construct a road to the lake. At that time, even the local people didn't believe that they could do it.

On the spot, Ma found a huge stone weighing several tons blocking the way; even if they rode horses, they would not be able to get access to many places unless they walked by holding on to the horse's tail.

At the beginning of building the road, in order to choose the right route, Ma relied on his own experience to explore in advance, with the grab and bulldozer following behind, because there was no measuring equipment. He often had to retrace his steps three or four times covering 10 kilometers in a day.

At 5,000 meters altitude, water boils at below 60 degrees. If there is wind at night, two people must hang onto the iron support of the tent to ensure it wasn't blown away.

Because of shortage of oxygen, nobody felt hungry or had any interest in food.

A team member, Tang Guang, said that Ma was the oldest man in it. "Sometimes, although he needed a transfusion, he would pull out the tube and start rushing around. For that, there is no reason for us not to follow him".

Tibetan member Wangdui said: "Ma only is an aid-Tibet cadre from some other place. If he exerts himself to the utmost like that, there is no reason for me, a person born in Tibet and growing up in Tibet, not to follow him and devote myself to the work.

After more than one month of battling, Ma Xinguo finished the road to the ice lake to complete the first phase of their work.

After that, Ma told the leaders of the Water Commission: "At that time, some members ask me if I have a pain in my head. I have, but I can't admit it. In fact, the achievement was obtained through all people's efforts. I can't do it alone". He remained so modest.

These are aid-Tibet workers sent by the PRC Ministry of Water Resources. Since 1991, the ministry has been sending a working group for irrigation works in Tibet. In 2001, to help Tibet to complete the mass construction task of irrigation works, the ministry established a mechanism that defined 14 units to aid Tibet including the units directly under the ministry and seven drainage area units. It is calculated that people sent to Tibet on long-term assignments numbered over 60 and those on short-term engagements totaled several hundred.