China has attached great importance to the cause of flood control and prevention along the Yangtze River since the founding of the country. However, apart from the progresses made, flood management on the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River still faces challenge.

On the occasion of the Friendship Award ceremony held in Beijing on Sep 29, 2005, 50 outstanding foreign experts were honoured for their special contributions to the country's economic and social development. Haydn Betts, the Friendship Award winner and Australian team leader and water resources management advisor of Yangtze River Flood Control and Management Project (YRFCMP) accepted an exclusive interview with People's Daily Online, during which he talked freely about the current situation of China's flood control, prevention and management along the Yangtze River and shared his in-depth view on his work experiences in China over the past three years.

"The project commenced in China in March 2001, and I joined the project fourteen months later, and my role when I first came was to develop a decision support system. Our project is much bigger than just the decision support system," said Betts. "It commences with the supply and installation of automatic water level and rainfall recorders at many locations, and also managed to provide computer equipment and capacity building along the Yangtze River."

Betts continued that the Decision Support System is one of the most challenging parts of the project. Thanks to the system, flood forecast has been extended from previous two to three days to seven days now. The forecast accuracy is as good as, if not better, previous forecast. Apart from that, Betts also took charge of the development of some 120 hydrologic and hydraulic models. In terms of the flood management options, Yangtze flood control headquarters has the opportunity to change the reservoirs including the Three Gorges dam and can determine how best to operate reservoirs.

When asked about his working philosophy, Betts said that as a manager, his job is to be the servant of the people who work under him, and make sure they have the tools, equipment, resources as well as the information they need to do the job greatly. Meanwhile being the team leader, Betts also needs to ensure that his counterpart colleagues understand his team approach and what he tries to achieve. For him, the biggest difficulty is the amount of work in training that has to be done. There are so many ways of using the tools he has developed, and many people said that is the legacy. Betts tries his best to make the legacy to become not an idea but the reality.

On the basis of his rich experience in terms of flood control and prevention, Betts made a comparison of flood management in China in different period of time. There was major flood in 1870, during which millions of people along the Yangtze River were affected; and in 1931, 320,000 were killed. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a severe flood in 1954 claimed 32,000 lives. In the last 50 years, the Chinese government has made great efforts to improve the construction and strengthening of dams along the Yangtze River, and that work still continues. Since Betts came to China to take on the job, his team has improved the flood forecasting and developed the decision support system. Additionally, Betts also sent many young professionals overseas for training, for instance, Australia, Germany, and the US. What he thinks now is to improve the flood management. When a series of flood does occur, fewer lives would lose.

At the end of interview, he suggests students to learn more about water resources, not only the theory but also the implementation, since China does have a series of flood problems, ranging from shortage in some areas to much in other part of China. Professionals in China need more strategic thinking about problem solving. In Betts' view, he thinks the work will be fairly difficult because of cultural aspect, the language. In China, from the character you build the expressions. The analogy in China is if you look at the leaves on the tree, then you will see the shape of tree, then you will see forest. However in western countries, people see the forest first, then see the tree, and then look at the leaves. The difference lies in whether to focus from a wider perspective rather than proceeding from the specific.

The cause of flood control and prevention along the Yangtze River has become more and more urgent as China ushers into the new century. Since the Yangtze River valley covers the burgeoning economic bases in south China, a rational and scientific utilization of water resources has become the top priority of the country. Central government and relevant departments at various levels have poured in lots of material and intellectual power because, in their words, the undertaking of flood control and management along the Yangtze River is a battle that China can not afford to lose.

By People's Daily Online