Renovation of World's Oldest Irrigation Project Completed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 27, 2002

Renovation of World's Oldest Irrigation Project Completed

Renovation of the 2,250-year-old irrigation system in Dujiangyan City in southwest China's Sichuan Province was completed Wednesday.

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Renovation of the 2,250-year-old irrigation system in Dujiangyan City in southwest China's Sichuan Province was completed Wednesday.

The work began on Nov. 13 this year and it cost a total 30 million yuan (3.6 million US dollars).

To repair the subsided water dividing project of the irrigation system, workers have built a new water dividing facility, which was reinforced by a one-meter-thick wall covered with a 60-cm layer of concrete.

In addition, four ridges have been built at the riverbed to reduce the impulsive force of water. Riverbed silt has also been removed.

Built on the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, a major tributary of China's longest river, the Yangtze, the Dujiangyan irrigation system is said to be the world's oldest irrigation project still in operation. At present, it irrigates 672,600 hectares of farmland and provides water for daily use and industrial purposes for people and enterprises in 50 large and medium-sized cities in Sichuan Province.

Modern monitoring

A computerized device to monitor water levels was successfully installed Thursday in the inlet of the world's oldest irrigation works still in operation in China.

The 1-cubic-meter device was placed on a buoy and its movement as the water level changed would be recorded by sensors and relayed to a computer in the monitoring center on the bank, said Peng Shuming, head of the project administration.

Dujiangyan was built in BC 256 in southwest China's Sichuan province along the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, a major branch of the Yangtze River. The scheme irrigates about 672,700 hectares of farmland and provides water for industrial and household use in 50 large and medium-sized cities.

The level in the inlet of Dujiangyan determined how much water was released for irrigation, said Li Junzhu, a local water conservation expert.

Experts believed that in ancient times residents marked water levels on rocks on the banks and marks made in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) were found on Dec.6, Li said.

The use of a computer would improve the efficiency and accuracy of the project, he added.

The river was blocked from Nov.13 to Wednesday for maintenance of the irrigation works at a cost to the government of 30 million yuan.

Dujiangyan and nearby Mt Qingcheng were listed as World Heritage sites in 2000 by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO.

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