A management conference of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was recently held by the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) in Zhengzhou, Henan province.
Vice Minister Jiang Xuguang delivered a speech to the conference. Chief Engineer Liu Weiping presided over the meeting, and Chief Economist Zhang Zhongyi also attended the meeting.
In his speech, Jiang said the project had achieved remarkable results in 2018. On the basis of a year-round safe and stable operation, concrete efforts were made in increasing the amount of water supply, improving the water quality, expanding the scope of supply, and implementing ecological water replenishment.
The total amount of water transferred through eastern and central route of the water diversion project was around 8.55 billion cubic meters, exceeding its predetermined target. The surface water quality of the eastern route had remained stably above class III, while that of the central route had stayed better than class II.
Besides, efforts were made in speeding up the acceptance of relevant projects, composing final financial reports, promoting the formulation of standards and guidelines regarding project operation and management, and accelerating the construction of supporting projects, etc.
In the past five years, the first phase of the eastern and central route project has transferred more than 25 billion cubic meters of water, benefiting more than 100 million people along its route. Irreplaceable social, ecological and economic effects have been brought about by the project.
Jiang said there are also new tasks and requirements for the water diversion project. He gave special emphasis to changing demand for water supply, and stressed that there is a long way to go to improving the ecological efficiency, consummating the water price policy, and completing the final construction and supporting projects. He noted that the task of project acceptance is arduous and the project supervision system still needs to be improved, and that it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the current circumstances and to solve difficult problems in a timely manner. Jiang urged all staff to overcome challenges and do a good job in the management of the water diversion project in an all-round way.
In view of the key tasks in the next stage, he demanded that solid work must be done. The first is to ensure the safety of the project itself and the safety of water supply; the second is to take multiple measures in order to give full play to the project; the third is to consummate standards and guidelines, and to improve management quality and efficiency; fourth, to strengthen collaborative innovation via new ideas of information, intelligence, and modernization; fifth, to pay close attention to project acceptance, final financial reports, final construction, and improve the water price system; sixth, to deepen reform, promote innovation, and establish a modern enterprise system; seventh, to enhance supervision according to laws and regulations; eighth, to strengthen publicity, to create a good public opinion environment, and to enhance the brand of the water diversion project.
Jiang also called to improve political awareness and reinforce organizational construction, so as to achieve concrete achievements in the new era.
Attendees of the meeting also paid a visit to the Yellow River crossing project and the Jialu River project in Zhengzhou.