Under the hot sun, the pump was out of breath

The river was cut off to build a dam, dozens of thick black steel pipe gushing water issued bursts of roar; Next to the dam, workers in the hot sun carry and assemble new water pumps. Drought-fighting men in straw hats are checking the pumps...

This scene takes place in the Shuibiqiao estuary beside the Shuiyang River in Zhuangbao Town, Gaochun District. The municipal flood control and rescue team temporarily set up 20 pumps to divert Yangjiang water into the river, and finally send the water to Gucheng Lake through 8500 meters, ensuring the demand for agricultural irrigation, ecological water and crab breeding water in the district. On the afternoon of August 7, the reporter came to the front line to witness the whole process of the team working in the weather of nearly 40 degrees Celsius.

"Hot weather, large evaporation, large water consumption, coupled with low rainfall, resulting in Gucheng Lake water storage plummeting." City flood prevention and rescue mobile team director Yu Yixin introduced, since the flood this year, the rainfall in my city is less, especially Gaochun, compared with the same period in previous years, precipitation is less, some hills and mountains have appeared drought. City defense Office issued instructions on July 31, from Shuiyang River pumping water for Gucheng Lake water.

City flood prevention and rescue mobile team drainage Division chief Yuan Kang is a drought "veteran", received the task, the same day dispatched drought emergency team rushed to brick wall town. After 24 hours of hard work, 20 pumps were installed on August 1, and the water was pumped around the clock to relieve the water shortage in Gucheng Lake. After the first batch of water pumps were put into use, there were only 4 water replenishment flows per second, which was far from enough to meet the demand. After consultation, the municipal Defense Office and the Water Bureau of Gaochun District decided to add 26 more pumps to increase water replenishment efforts.

The sun was blazing in the sky, and the soil on the dam was scorched and hot. A crawler excavator acted as a crane to put a pump into the Shuiyang River. Yuan Kangcai said that a pump weighs more than 400 kilograms, people simply can't lift. In order to pump water from the river into the Shuibiqiao River, eight steel pipes with a diameter of 300 millimeters and a length of 2 meters are connected together to form a unit. Each pump takes one hour to assemble, and 26 pumps take one day and one night to assemble, allowing more than 10 pumps to be pumped. After staying at the scene for half an hour, the reporter was already feeling the pain from the sun, the sweat on his face was rolling down and he was out of breath. And in the river, under the same "baking" test team members completely ignore these, still in the hot sun methodically busy.

Subsequently, Yu Yixin took reporters to the dam side of the temporary landing point - two standard container transformation of the "dormitory". Inside were a few makeshift high and low beds covered with MATS, baked in the sun like "little steamers" even though the air conditioning was on. How about three meals a day? The team members said that in the nearby Shuibiqiao village, despite the difficult living conditions, but for Gaochun people to contribute to the drought, no matter how hard it is worthwhile.

Shi Jianbing, director of the Water bureau of Gaochun District, who accompanied the interview, said that in addition to the Shuibiqiao pumping point, they also opened the Shushan water project to pump water from Shiwu Lake to replenish Gucheng Lake. The two water supply points can draw 1.8 million cubic meters of water every day, equivalent to the water storage capacity of a Xuanwu Lake in three days. At present, the water level of Gucheng Lake is 8.56 meters, which has risen by about 20 centimeters. In the next step, pumping will continue to ensure that the water level of Gucheng Lake reaches the normal landscape water level of 9 meters as soon as possible to meet the water demand of the whole region.

Source: Nanjing Daily, page A5, August 10, 2018