4 | Friday, September 18, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA After centuries of waste, quota Plump pumpkins system helps Ningxia save water By HOU LIQIANG “Now, I am completely relieved autonomous region and distributed in Wuzhong, Ningxia from the trouble of irrigating my to consumers. [email protected] fields,” Wang noted. Yang said the district has resorted As a construction worker, he to a tiered pricing mechanism to The Ningxia Hui autonomous could usually make over 200 yuan motivate farmers to conserve water. region has been diverting water ($30) a day. Previously, he had to Farmers are charged 0.035 yuan for from the Yellow River, the country’s stop work for at least a whole day one cubic meter of water if the water second longest, to irrigate farms for every time his farmlands needed they consume is less than their quo- over 2,000 years. While water diver- irrigating. Now, he only has to pay ta. The price will jump by 50 percent sion made the region — which has the association 100 yuan, and its if farmers consume up to 20 percent low rainfall and strong evaporation workers will help him do the work, more than the quota, and it will be — a major food-producing area in he said. triple if they consume more than 20 Northwest China, the traditional The concentrated management percent of their allocation. method of flood irrigation results in ensures stable water flow. Thanks to The mechanism “has made peo- a large amount of the precious water these workers’ rich experiences in ple more proactive in promoting resources in China’s mother river irrigation control, the excessive water conservancy”, he said. going to waste. waste of water has been avoided. A water trading system, which As China’s central leadership “Now, on most occasions, the drain- was introduced to Ningxia in 2004 attaches greater importance to pro- age ditch is dry,” he said. and allows trading of water rights, tection and high-quality develop- He has seen his annual payment has been injecting more impetus ment of the Yellow River Basin, for irrigation water drop from 900 into both water conservancy and unprecedented changes have yuan to 600 yuan since the smart industrial development in the occurred as local governments pro- system was put into operation, autonomous region. mote the development of water-sav- though he could not tell how much In the pilot program, water that ing agriculture. A large amount of water was saved each year in his was allocated but unused can be water has been saved and used to farms. Farmers pay for water based traded among water consumers’ Visitors examine giant pumpkins at an agritourism greenhouse in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, on support industrial development in on the total amount each zone con- associations and different cities. Wednesday. A renowned seaside tourist attraction, the city has integrated its agricultural resources the Northwest China region. sumes and the size of their fields. Thanks to the agricultural water and established a dozen such agritourism complexes. MU YU / XINHUA President Xi Jinping called for conservancy campaign, Litong dis- concerted efforts to promote ecolog- trict managed to sell over 14.8 mil- ical protection and high-quality 46 lion cubic meters of water, which development of the Yellow River million was built up during the agricultural while chairing a symposium on Sept cubic meters of water was water-saving campaign, to Baofeng 18, 2019, during his inspection tour saved in Litong district of Energy in Ningxia’s capital Yin- to Henan province, another one of Wuzhong, Ningxia Hui chuan for 382 million yuan, he said. Rapid progress made the nine provincial regions the Yel- autonomous region, last year. According to local authorities, low River runs through. some of the money will be invested “The protection of the Yellow Riv- According to the Ningxia water into agricultural water-saving pro- er is critical to the great rejuvena- resources department, the smart jects to further promote water con- tion and sustainable development of system has covered almost 67,000 servancy. the Chinese nation,” said Xi, adding hectares of farmland in Litong dis- Yang said Baofeng will use the in developing vaccine that it is a major national strategy. trict. On average, 1,500 cubic meters water for a chemical project that Xi pointed out difficulties and of water could be annually saved for could annually output 600,000 met- problems in protecting the Yellow every hectare of farmland. In total, ric tons of olefin. The money will be River, citing a fragile environment, irrigation in 182,000 hectares of paid to the Litong government in Expert says it may be available for with COVID-19 vaccines, includ- the severe condition of the water farmland that use water diverted five years, and, on average, the ing those going to countries seri- resource’s preservation and the from the Yellow River for irrigation annual fiscal revenue of the district public use as early as November ously affected by the virus for need to improve development quali- has been subjected to control of the should increase by about 28 percent work, front-line health workers ty. He also stressed better use of intelligent system in Ningxia. during that time. By WANG XIAODONG mally take more than a decade to and elderly people with chronic water resources, with rational popu- According to the Yellow River Chen Dan, an official with the [email protected] develop. diseases. lation planning, and urban and Conservancy Commission, with an Ningxia water resources depart- Effective vaccines have been Wu said that with the arrival of industrial development to curb average annual precipitation of 180 ment, said that there have been 127 Research and development on seen as a crucial weapon in con- fall and winter, peak seasons for unreasonable water demand. to 200 millimeters, the area in Ning- water quota trades in the autono- COVID-19 vaccines in China is pro- taining the pandemic, which has infectious diseases such as flu and xia that diverts water from the river mous region so far, and 195 million gressing rapidly, and they may be resulted in about 30 million cases COVID-19, vulnerable groups Water conservation efforts covers 6,573 square kilometers, and cubic meters of water has been sold available for public use as early as worldwide. Although it is effective- should be able to receive COVID-19 Thanks to the dense irrigation almost 95 percent of the 220,000 for 2 billion yuan. Most of the quotas November, a senior virologist said. ly under control in China, some vaccines once they are available as channel network, water from the hectares of cultivated land in the have been transferred to Ningdong Five of the nine COVID-19 vacci- experts have called for vigilance to well as flu vaccines. Yellow River can flow automatically region are irrigated areas. Energy and Chemical Industry nes that have entered Phase 3 clini- guard against new outbreaks in A technical guide released by the into Wang Xingfeng’s 0.7 hectares of Yang Hanqing, head of Litong dis- Base, where Baofeng Energy is cal trials globally are being winter. China CDC last week said groups farmland as long as he opens the trict’s water authority, said 46 mil- located. developed in China, and they have Three candidate COVID-19 vac- that should receive flu vaccines sluice gates. Previously, the 50-year- lion cubic meters of water was saved He said quota trading has made produced satisfying trial results, cines have been approved by Chi- include medical workers, employ- old in Donggouwan village in Wu- last year in the district, up from 3 great contributions to industrial said Wu Guizhen, chief biosafety nese authorities for emergency use ees at nursing homes, primary zhong city’s Litong district, always million in 2017. development in Ningxia. The value expert at the Chinese Center for by groups at higher risk of infec- school teachers and students, the found it troublesome to irrigate. added in Ningxia’s industrial sector Disease Control and Prevention. A tion, including some medical work- elderly and people with chronic “Villagers irrigated when they Trading usage rights only stood at 19.8 billion yuan when vaccine usually has to complete ers treating COVID-19 patients and diseases. were free. Many people did the work Water consumed by the agricul- the pilot program was initiated in three phases of trials before gain- people going overseas to work. Senior experts, including Wang coincidently at the same time. The tural sector amounts to 70 percent 2004. The number has currently ing market approval. Zhou Song, chief legal adviser of Chen, president of the Chinese small flow, however, could not sup- of the total water consumption in reached 127 billion yuan. With 5 per- None of the people who have China National Biotec Group, said Academy of Medical Sciences, have port them irrigating together,” he the Yellow River Basin, according cent of Ningxia’s water resources, received candidate COVID-19 vac- earlier that two vaccines being also called for measures to be taken said, adding that this resulted in to the Ministry of Ecology and the Ningdong base contributes to cines developed by China for emer- developed by the company are to encourage the public to get flu many disputes over who should irri- Environment’s bureau for the basin one-third of the current added value gency use have exhibited serious undergoing Phase 3 clinical trials vaccines to prevent the disease in gate first. in Henan provincial capital in the industrial sector in the region. side effects or contracted the novel and have been approved for emer- fall and winter to minimize health Wang said he often chose to irri- Zhengzhou.