Maning Town, Huaiji County, China - The past and present of Hulang Reservoir

Maning Town, Huaiji County, China - The past and present of Hulang Reservoir

Huaiji Release July 5, 2024 10:48 Guangdong, China

Huaiji has six large reservoirs, one of which was built in the 1970s by the farmers of the whole commune with their hands and shoulders.

That is the Hulang Reservoir located in the north of Maning Town, Huaiji County.

The Hulang Reservoir Dam is 26.8 meters high, 231 meters long, 5 meters wide at the top, 186 meters wide at the bottom, and about 350,000 cubic meters of earth dam. The catchment area is 13.35 square kilometers and the total capacity is 12.04 million cubic meters. It is a medium-sized reservoir integrating flood control, irrigation, power generation, domestic water supply, aquaculture, hydrological observation, and tourism. The Hulang Reservoir area has beautiful scenery, lush ferns, and a wide vegetation coverage. From the satellite map, it seems like a pearl inlaid in the mountains.

However, this huge reservoir was built by expropriating land for free. In the absence of mechanical equipment, the people worked hard for more than five years with their flesh and blood to flatten the four hills on both sides of the dam and build a reservoir dam of more than 350,000 cubic meters.

From scratch, the villagers gave up their land for free to build the reservoir

In the 1970s, in order to better protect the green mountains and clear waters, so that the people can see the blue sky and white clouds and drink clean water, Huaiji County decided to build the Hulang Reservoir in the Hulang Brigade of Maning Commune. Of the six production teams in the Hulang Brigade, except for the two production teams of Pingshanzhai and Shanweizhai, the remaining four production teams of Anning, Linwu, Tanwu and Shazhou were all relocated. Anning moved to a post at the Hulang Pass, and the collective unified planning and reconstruction was named Xincun; the three production teams of Linwu, Tanwu and Shazhou moved to the higher mountainside of the reservoir area to choose a site for reconstruction. In that era of work points, there was no concept of compensation for demolition and land expropriation. The Party Committee and the government are responsible for leveling the land, dismantling the houses, transporting the raw materials, building the same area of ​​civil structure tile houses in other places, and exempting the villagers from the public grain.

The simple and kind-hearted people in the mountain villages actively responded to the call of the Party, without any complaints, reluctantly gave up their fields and houses, actively cooperated with the relocation, and built new homes in other places. During the relocation process, the masses did not bargain, did not ask for compensation, and there were no "nail households".

Gathering forces to build a water conservancy barrier

The Hulang Reservoir began to build the dam in 1972 and was completed and put into operation in 1977, which took more than five years. During these five years, Maning Commune insisted on the leadership of party building, gave full play to the role of the party organization as a fighting fortress and the vanguard and exemplary role of party members, and party members and cadres took the lead in the front line, leading the people to actively invest in the construction of the reservoir dam. Under the leadership of party members and cadres, local villagers actively responded to the call, prepared their own production tools, took the initiative to work, and stayed in a simple thatched shed near the mountain near the dam for a long time. They built their own stoves and lived on the mountain tops. They worked hard, overcame difficulties, and built a solid water conservancy barrier with their flesh and blood.

All people participate, and the united assault battle

The party organization fully trusts and relies on the masses. In addition to the transfer of migrant workers, it summons all the labor of each production team in the two periods of spring planting and autumn harvest every year, and brings their own meals to the reservoir construction site to voluntarily carry mud and build dams, and conduct assault battles. The efficiency of the assault battle is not high, but the assault battles in two periods every year can raise the dam by 2 to 3 meters. In the era without mechanical equipment, the use of mass assault battles is a good choice.

Work hard for a long time, and continue to struggle to protect the green mountains and clear waters

Most of the migrant workers who stay at the construction site are doing the work of transporting mud and building dams. Migrant workers with special skills do high-tech work such as chiseling and blasting rocks, building stone walls, and building culverts. For the migrant workers, the sound of the radio broadcast from the construction site command center is the command signal for their work and life. Due to the high mountains and steep roads, the terrain is steep, and the wheelbarrow has no brake device, when transporting mud down the mountain, one person can only step on the rear of the car to drag the sand, and two people use their shoulders to carry the two handlebars with difficulty, and then slowly move backwards. When they arrived at the dam, the three people used their hands and feet, one person pulled and two people pushed, and arduously transported the mud to the designated location for filling. In this way, they went back and forth more than ten times every day without interruption, and evacuated the construction site by pulling the wheelbarrow at 11 noon. Because the construction site set off the "mud cannon" on time at 12 o'clock, in order to ensure safety, there were special people guarding the safety work. Everyone near the site had to evacuate, and people and animals were prohibited from entering. "Mud cannon" is to use a long-handled iron shovel to dig a round hole with a diameter of 15 cm and a depth of 1 to 1.5 meters, and then put in explosives, detonators, and fuses. When the time comes, ignite and blast to loosen the soil and make it easier for migrant workers to load. Generally, it is set once in the afternoon and evening. At 2 pm, the construction site broadcast sounded and continued to transport mud and build the dam. At 6 pm, the work was over. After a day, the migrant workers were exhausted, covered in mud and sweat, dragging their tired bodies back to the shed. Day after day, they worked hard to start a business, and batches of villagers continued to struggle.

Liang Linsheng from Maning Town was one of the workers who transported mud and built the dam. In August 1974, Liang Linsheng had just graduated from high school and was arranged by the production team to work as a migrant worker at the Hulang Reservoir construction site. He did heavy physical work, ate white rice with pickled cabbage, and lived in a thatched hut that was leaky and full of insects and rats. In addition to transporting mud and building dams, he also took turns to cook three meals a day for the migrant workers in his team. Regardless of the scorching sun in summer or the biting cold wind, he insisted on working every day for one year and six months, using his youth and sweat to make positive contributions to the construction of the Hulang Reservoir Dam.

Upgrading and renovating to solve the problem of drinking water

After the reform and opening up, the social economy has transformed, science and technology has developed rapidly, and large-scale modern machinery and equipment have been used in rural areas. In 2003, the Hulang Reservoir used the abundant water resources of the reservoir to build a water plant. The siphon technology (also known as the reverse suction technology) can continuously divert clean and hygienic water from the reservoir to the water plant without the need for electricity to pump water, greatly reducing the cost of water production. It was completed and put into operation in 2004, solving the drinking water problem of thousands of households in Maning. In 2017, the pipe network and capacity expansion were upgraded and renovated, and the daily water supply can reach 4,000 tons, further improving the water supply capacity, expanding the water supply coverage, and benefiting more people. Today, the Hulang Reservoir not only provides safe, clean and hygienic drinking water for the people of Maning, but also ensures the living water supply for more than 70,000 villagers in dozens of villages such as Huashi Village and Dazhai in the surrounding Liangcun Town.

A reservoir has witnessed a period of history. More than 50 years ago, the vast number of farmers in Maning Town worked together to build the Hulang Reservoir with their flesh and blood in just five years, witnessing a period of intensive labor achievement in Huaiji County. Over the past 40 years, the Hulang Reservoir has not only played the role of ensuring water supply for life and agricultural production, but also played an economic benefit in the form of power generation, playing an active role in maintaining ecological harmony and social comprehensive benefits.