Xinhua Insight: Rivers bring livelihood to C. China workers

Li Shichao, a native of Wuhan on the Yangtze River, has always been fond of water and ships.

On World Water Day, observed annually on March 22, he sat in front of monitors watching vessels pass through the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project. For him, it was just another Tuesday.

The theme of this year's World Water Day is water and jobs. According to the United Nations, 1.5 billion people work in water-related sectors.

Li, a vessel dispatcher, is one of them. After graduating from the Navigation School of Wuhan University of Technology in 2014, the 27-year-old started working at the Three Gorges Dam as a dispatcher, responsible for planning lockage, sending directives and monitoring.

"Just like at an airport terminal, where inbound and outbound planes are directed, we dispatch the ships that pass through the locks," he said.

The Three Gorges project, located on a stretch of the Yangtze River in Hubei's Yichang City, consists of a 2,309-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam, a five-tier ship lock and 26 hydropower turbo-generators. Its functions include water storage, flood control, transportation and power generation.

According to Li, a dispatcher's workload can be seen as a barometer of China's economic development.

"I heard from my senior colleagues that it used to be not so busy until a boom in shipping services in recent years," he said, adding they currently provide dispatching services for 150 cargo vessels every day.

Last year, 119.6 million tonnes of cargo were transported through the Three Gorges, 8.7 times as much as in 2003, when the project started operating.

"I have seen more high-value-added cargo, such as automobiles, in the last couple of years, which is an indication of our country's restructuring efforts in manufacturing," Li said.

Li expects they will be even busier in the future, as the central government has vowed to develop the Yangtze River economic belt.

The economic belt will push for breakthroughs in innovation, industrial restructuring and economic development by 2020, according to a blue print document released earlier this month.

Zhang Hong, a water quality inspector, is also much busier than before.

Zhang, 49, is head of the environmental monitoring station at Zigui County on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, just before the river flows into the Three Gorges.

She and her station workers are responsible for collecting water samples, laboratory analysis and reporting. They monitor the Yangtze, its seven branch rivers in the county, and groundwater.

"It's like a battle every day, especially in winter, when the still river water is prone to pollution as the dam starts catching water for storage," she said.

The number of station workers surged to 24 from 10 in 2010 because of pollution threats from industry as well as government efforts to improve water quality.

In late February, China announced a plan to improve the Yangtze's water quality as part of wider measures to balance economic activity and environmental protection.

China classifies water quality into six levels, ranging from level I, which is suitable for drinking after minimal treatment, to level VI, for water that is severely contaminated.

In the years leading up to 2020, local authorities will work to ensure that more than 75 percent of the water in the Yangtze economic belt meets at least the Level III standard, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency.

Helping with that goal, tea farmer Zhou Gonghu has taken a seasonal job collecting garbage from the river surface by boat.

Zhou, 54, was among 1.3 million people relocated to make way for construction of the Three Gorges project. Zhou was resettled at Songshuao Village of Zigui in 1996, and was later hired by the local government as a garbage collector during flood season from June to October.

"We net tree twigs, plastic bags, bottles and deserted shoes," said Zhou who makes around 100 yuan (15.4 U.S. dollars) per day.

His family earns 30,000 to 50,000 yuan per year, including income from tea farming and garbage collection -- much better than in the past.

While Zhou cleans up the local water supply, Zhang Xueli, a worker with the Environmental Protection Bureau of Danjiangkou City, works to ensure clean drinking water for thirsty Beijing, 1,200 kilometers away.

Danjiangkou is the starting point for the middle route of the south-north water diversion project. The project, operational since 2014, is the world's longest of its kind. It was approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, in 2002, five decades after late Chairman Mao Zedong came up with the idea. In the first year of operation, the project diverted 2.22 billion cubic meters of water northward, and Beijing received 822 million cubic meters.

To avoid pollution, environmental authorities have shut down all factories near the Danjiangkou Reservoir that could threaten water quality.

"We dare not relax for a second," he said, adding night inspections are common to eliminate illegal dumping from factories and sewage processing plants.

With polluting plants shut down, the city is welcoming environmentally friendly projects, such as the Danzhiyuan beer factory, to create new jobs.

Built in October 2015, the brewery has recruited nearly 200 workers, mostly poor locals. The beer is expected to hit the market in May, and annual production value is predicted to reach 300 million yuan.

General manager Du Yankui said the excellent water quality attracted the plant to the city. The brewery draws water directly from Danjiangkou Reservoir through a pipeline.

Du is a native of Beijing, but he has settled in Danjiangkou. "I will make my fortune where there is water," he said.

Fan Changhui, director with the city's poverty alleviation office, said economic growth cannot be achieved at the cost of environmental pollution.

"A balance between water protection and economic development will always be a key mission for the government," he said. Endi