Visit zhang Chunyuan, former Vice Minister of ministry of Water Resources and former executive Vice President of China Association for Old Science and Technology

Zhang Chunyuan, male, Han Nationality, born in August 1938 in Linhai, Zhejiang province, is a national registered investment consultant and professor level senior engineer. He graduated from the Water Conservancy Department of Tsinghua University in 1960. He was vice chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Vice Minister of The Ministry of Water Resources, vice chairman of China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, and executive Vice President of China Association of Geriatricians。

2019, Beijing autumn morning, the sun is very good, "after 80" Zhang Chunyuan came over, straight, sharp eyes, very neat. In the past, he has repeatedly said that the interview is unnecessary and that he has a lot on his plate. He had just returned from a business trip and asked what he was up to. The witty Zhang said it was "a big deal" -- sewage treatment. "Why are you still so busy since you were born in the 1980s?" he asked. He laughed again and said, "We old people also have a primary purpose and a mission. To do more is to keep a good mood and live a long and healthy life." "Although we are a big country in water shortage, we are also a big country in sewage, with about 75 billion tons of sewage every year. It is very good to use it." Zhang Chunyuan is busy with water recently. He studied for a long time and set up a study with experts from the Chinese Academy of Water Sciences. China is the world's most water-deficient country. Especially in the north, the water resources per capita in the three major basins of the Huang-Huai-Hai River are only one-seventh of the world average. In the past ten years, China's water consumption has been around 610 billion cubic meters. There is no significant increase, and there is not much water available for development. In the new era, China needs to move forward from a major economic power to one. We need to implement the strategies of rural revitalization, urbanization and industrial modernization, and build a beautiful China. We need water to ensure food, energy, ecological, and social security. How to solve the problem of water in the new period is a big problem in China's economic and social development. Zhang said that many advanced countries treat sewage as a valuable water resource and make it harmless and usable. In some countries, water treated by sewage treatment plants goes directly to the waterworks for retreatment and is used directly as drinking water. Our sewage, some treated with simple means, some even without treatment, flows everywhere and becomes an important source of pollution in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and underground reservoirs. "There are many advantages in sewage reclamation. It does not need to build DAMS, divert water, affect the ecological environment, flood land and immigrate. It costs less and can be used locally." Zhang Chunyuan studied with Li Changfan, the old minister and branch secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, and regarded it as an activity that the old ministers carried out "never forget the original intention and keep the mission in mind" in connection with practical activities. When the senior ministers talked about the promotion of water conservancy and the elimination of water disasters, they had a lively discussion. They all believed that this was a major measure and should be sent directly to the major leaders of the Central Committee. Zhang chunyuan revised the report, and several senior ministers signed jointly before the 70th anniversary of the central government. Senior ministers took concrete actions to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of new China and happily attended the National Day viewing ceremony. What is more encouraging is that the central leadership attached great importance to their Suggestions and made important instructions. Zhang Chunyuan is in love with water. In the early days of the founding of New China, the state called for the construction of the new China. In 1955, Zhang Chunyuan was only 16 years old when he was admitted to the Department of Architecture, Tsinghua University. After his admission, he changed his study to water conservancy after hearing the introduction of the grand blueprint of the national development of water conservancy. After graduation, Zhang responded to the national call and moved to Guangxi, where he worked for 30 years, from a basic technician to the vice chairman of the autonomous region. In 1988, the Ministry of Water Resources was divided into two departments, and Zhang Was transferred to the Ministry of Water Resources. At that time, although the reform and opening up had been carried out for 10 years, the ministry of Water Resources still had a strong color of planned economy. Water conservancy construction was still dependent on the government's mobilization, and farmers put in labor and labor. At that time, 10 billion farmers' voluntary labor was the most important input in water conservancy at that time. "The money the state gives to the Ministry of Water Resources every year is mainly paid to the workers who look after the Yellow River dykes. The main task of the Ministry of Water Resources is to prevent and fight floods in summer and mobilize farmers throughout the country to build water conservancy projects in winter." Zhang Chunyuan is a practical "local" cadre. After learning about the "central", he realized, "I was hired to do hard work." Mr. Zhang, who has spent more than a decade working at the Ministry of Water Resources, said he has devoted his time to three tasks: fighting floods, such as the flooding of The Taihu And Huaihe rivers in 1991, the flooding of Hebei in 1996, and the flooding of the Yangtze River in 1998. Second, coordinating inter-provincial contradictions. Water conservancy projects involve the upper and lower reaches of the river and the left and right Banks, and there are so many conflicts that the Meeting of the State Council on controlling huaihe River and the Taihe River could not be held. The leadership of the State Council made a vicious statement: "If the conflicts cannot be coordinated down, the Minister of Water resources will be dismissed!" Zhang Chunyuan got the job done; The third is to seek funds, because "nothing can be done without money". The 1990s ushered in an era of water conservancy. Projects such as rural hydropower, taihu Lake, Huaihe River, Xiaolangdi on the Yellow River, Wanjiazhai, Jiangya and Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, as well as water-saving irrigation and large and medium-sized water-saving renovation projects were launched successively. The amount of funds in the hands of the Ministry of Water Resources has grown from about 400 million yuan to tens of billions of yuan a year, once the largest among the central ministries and commissions. The business developed, but Zhang Chunyuan left the various conditions in charge of the department of relatively good, to take charge of the then insufficient funds of the agriculture and water department. However, the practical "Lao Zhang" did not take a long time to make the irrigation and water conservancy undertakings flourishing, the department of agriculture and water resources funds are abundant. "In retrospect, although the work is very difficult, many contradictions, but did a lot of things, leaving many good memories. Asked several times, he did not want to tell too many old stories, said it involved many people and things, leaving it to posterity to write novels.

Flood fighting and Zhang Chunyuan

In July 1998, a historic flood occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The water level in Shashi city, Hubei province reached 44.95 meters, 0.28 meters above the state flood diversion level. The whole country paid attention to the flood fighting and reached a critical moment. By this time, Zhang was no longer in charge of flood fighting, but instinctively suggested that the Ministry of Water Resources convene a party meeting to study it.

"If there is no one to send, I will go to the front line to fight the floods," Zhang told the party group at an Aug. 7 meeting. At noon, he and the State Defense Office deng Jian deputy director of the two people rushed to Jingzhou. Before boarding the plane, he cabled the Yangtze River Water Commission and immediately analyzed the water situation and flood diversion effect for reference. After getting off the plane, they looked and discussed along the Yangtze River dyke from Wuhan to Honghu dyke through Jingzhou. They saw that the flood level was only a few tens of centimeters away from the dyke. In some places, the waves were big and the river water was about to overflow the dyke, which was very dangerous. On the other side of the dam is the Flood diversion area of the Flood lake. There is a great plain of millions of people. People live and produce as if nothing has happened. On the embankment, only a deputy governor in charge of culture and education with a few people in the dike, see Zhang Chunyuan "scared." The results of the water situation analysis from the Yangtze River Water Commission have been sent: the upstream rainfall has basically ended, there is no heavy rainfall recently; After blasting dike flood diversion, the water level in Sha City can only drop 20 cm. Arriving at the Jingzhou Embankment, Zhang Chunyuan found that the water level was still 2 meters from the top of the embankment, and there was no great danger on the slope of the embankment. However, Hubei province believes that the water situation is critical and has applied for flood diversion, and the central government has agreed in principle. Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, governor and flood fighting team gathered in Jingzhou, the flood diversion dike bomb package has also been buried. It seems that people cherish a beautiful and simple illusion that the flood control of the Yangtze River will be solved as soon as the diversion dam is exploded. Zhang chunyuan doesn't think so. At 3 a.m., he and Deng jian got off the dam and hurried through the door of the hotel room. Vice Premier Li Wenzhi and Vice Minister of Water Resources Zhou Wenzhi entered, along with Li Antian, director of the Yangtze River Water Commission, and military leaders. Zhang Chunyuan report said after that all the way, at present, the key is not in the jingjiang reach Yangtze river flood, and in the downstream honghu, honghu levee flooding constructed from only a few tens of centimeters, at any time with the risk of dike burst, once burst, especially at night, the crowd is safety, and will inevitably, organization will waterborne forces as quickly as possible, upstream of the three gorges project corporation and local strength to honghu fighting and emergency operations. Mr Lai then expressed the same opinion. Wen jiabao listened with relief: "I understand your views, I understand." Immediately told the comrades around the general staff to mobilize the troops to Honghu, he went out of the room, and the central leadership in Beidaihe with a mobile phone. In the evening, Zhang Chunyuan was again called by Wen Jiabao. "The jiujiang embankment burst, two days and two nights can not be blocked, you go to see," Wen jiabao said, "you can rest assured, according to your eight Suggestions." Zhang traveled to Jiujiang on Premier Zhu Rongji's special plane and spent more than half a month eating and sleeping on a transport ship that served as a command ship. He twisted his clothes every day and lost more than 10 jin of weight. Jiujiang embankment burst shaking the whole country, the Yangtze River was at a historical high water level of more than 20 meters, the breach inside and outside the drop of more than 10 meters, high head, the flow rate is large, grain sacks, straw bags, boulders, cars, ships were launched into the water were washed away, the pipe can not be plugged down, the closure of the experts are at a loss.

"The premier has a good eye and called me here on purpose. I have the soil method I brought from the Hongshui River in Guangxi!" When Zhang Chunyuan saw the scene, he immediately told the army to make a steel and iron cage with big stones inside. He rolled down from the bank one by one and pushed forward, because it was heavy, had little resistance to water penetration, and was flexible enough to bite each other and not easy to be washed away. At the same time, please immediately national Defense emergency from the country by train to transport stone. In the evening, on the way to send the premier to the airport, the premier announced to the whole car and the military leaders: Zhang Chunyuan, you are not the commander of the commander! Early the next morning the report was received that the soil method had worked and that the closure was progressing smoothly.

       In 2000, Zhang chunyuan reported to his superior that he wanted to work for China International Engineering Consulting Co., hoping to do more work there. He stayed there for another 20 years and is still a member of the major projects evaluation committee of The Company. During this period, in addition to his original professor-level senior engineer title, he also added a national registered investment consultant title. At the beginning of 2000, just when the State proposed the great western development, Qian Zhengying, then vice chairman of the CPPCC national Committee and President of The China Association of Veteran Scientists and Technologists (hereinafter referred to as the Association) organized a group of veteran scientists and technologists to visit Sichuan and Yunnan. Zhang Chunyuan, who participated in the investigation, found that after so many years, most of the rich water resources in the west, especially in the southwest, have not been developed or the development is limited. At the same time, strict water control measures have greatly restricted the development of the west. At that time, one of the ideas of the western development was to transport gas from the west to the east. Looking at the "wasted" water, Zhang Chunyuan had an idea. At the conclusion meeting of the delegation, he put forward his own idea that hydropower should be given priority in the development of the western region, and that the west-east power should be transferred along with the west-east gas. The west-east power transmission is a measure that benefits the country and the people with one kill two birds with one stone. It can not only promote the development of the west, but also alleviate the shortage of resources in the east, and even greatly promote the problem of agriculture. After hearing this, Qian zhengying even said "very good" and asked Zhang Chunyuan to draft the proposal immediately. The proposal was signed by Qian Zhengying, Pan Jiazheng, Wang Siqi, Yuan Guolin and other five MEMBERS of the CPPCC. It was brought to the national two sessions in March 2000 and was regarded as the no. 1 proposal of the CPPCC and paid attention to by the state. Since then, the priority of hydropower, west power transmission to the east has become one of the western development strategies. More than a decade later, dozens of power transmission lines from the west to eastern and central China played a song of energy allocation. China's hydropower development has entered an unprecedented period of development. By the end of 2018, China's total installed capacity of hydropower is about 350 million kw, and its annual generating capacity is about 1.2 trillion KWH, firmly ranking first in the world. In 2000, Zhang Chunyuan was invited by Qian Zhengying to be the vice President and executive vice President of the Old Association of Science and Technology. The old association of science and technology talents gathered, is a technical consultation, decision-making consultation widely have a platform. Under the leadership of Qian Zhengying and Cheng Lianchang, Zhang Chunyuan, together with the presidents of various branches, actively organized senior scientific and technological personnel across the country to give advice and Suggestions to governments, departments and enterprises at all levels, and provided consulting services to the grassroots and farmers, which was well received by governments at all levels and the society. More than 20 research reports have been approved by state leaders. More than half of them were organized and even drafted by Zhang Chunyuan himself. The proposals cover a wide range of topics, from water and electricity priority to food safety, from circular agriculture to the treatment of retirees of enterprises with science and technology. They are all concrete and full of dry goods. Small irrigation and water conservancy is the foundation of agriculture, but for a long time, people think it is the matter of farmers, grass-roots county and township, do not get the attention of the society, let alone the support of the state. In 2004, Zhang Chunyuan organized successive director general of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources of the Ministry of Water Resources, and experts from the China Agricultural Affairs Office and the Ministry of Agriculture to conduct research, and wrote a report on strengthening national irrigation and water conservancy construction and establishing a national small-scale irrigation and water conservancy construction fund. He also asked Qian Zhengying to attach a personal letter to the Premier. This proposal has received the attention of the Central Government and was included in the Central Document No. 1 of 2005. The state has decided to set up a special fund to subsidize the construction of small irrigation and water conservancy facilities, which was 3 billion yuan in 2005 and increased year by year to 26.5 billion yuan in 2018, thus solving the problem of the source of funds for irrigation and water conservancy construction at the county level. "You may say it is a good deed for the peasants!" Zhang chunyuan said.

       About the author: Guan Yanhua, female, bachelor, chief editor of Science and Technology Daily.

This article is the 9th issue of Keyuan Today. Please contact jrkybjb@cnais.org.cn to reprint the article