"The risk of Yangtze River lies in Jingjiang". Beforethe founding of New China in 1949, the Jingjiang River flood disaster had notbeen effectively controlled for a long time, which seriously threatened thelife and property safety of people on both sides of the bank. At the beginningof the founding of New China, the governance of Jingjiang flood had become thetop priority in the construction of the Yangtze River flood control system.After the catastrophic flood in 1998, China invested heavily to build an"impregnable fortress" along the Jingjiang River. Nowadays, theprevious dangerous sections of the river have become scenery everywhere, theflood disaster has been transformed into water conservancy, and the days of"being scared when talking about the flood " are gone forever. Thelarge-scale series report Jingzhou Name Card in the Past Splendid 70 Years brings youclose to the main levee of Jingzhou Yangtze River that ensures the floodcontrol safety on both sides of Jingjiang River.
In early autumn, a river of clear water flows slowly tothe east, being tranquil and placid in the section of Guanyinji Shashi, JingjiangLevee. The visitors are interwoven in the park above the levee, and a harmoniouspainting between human and water is slowly unfolding.
Located in the lower reaches of the Three Gorges of theYangtze River, Jingjiang River starts from Zhicheng City (Now called Yidu City)in Hubei Province and ends at the entrance of Dongting Lake in Hunan Provincewith the total river length of 347 kilometers, the water flow being obstructed dueto the flat terrain and the curved riverway.In the over 300 years before 1949,the Jingjiang Levee collapsed 34 times, and in modern times, a big flood wouldoccur on average five to six years. In the summer of 1931, levee on both sidesof the Jingjiang River burst their banks, with disaster-affected farmlands of50.9 million mu and flood-hit population reaching up to 28 million. A folk songthat Jingsha is only afraid of the fond dream rather than weapons was widespreadat the local place.
After the founding of New China, China will annuallyinvest huge man power and material resources to regulate the Jingjiang Levee inorder to solve the Jingjiang flood.At the beginning of 1952, 300,000soldiers and civilians were mobilized to build a flood diversion project ofJingjiang River.Since 1984, in order to completely eradicate the flooddisaster, China has invested a huge amount of money to thoroughly regulate theJingjiang Levee, the main levees of Yangtze River in Honghu, Jianli andJingnan, Songzi River Levee, South Line Levee and the levees of Jingnan Four Rivers,with an estimated total investment up to 7.2 billion yuan.Some experts evaluate that thisinvestment has exceeded the total investment in the construction of all leveesin Jingzhou City since the founding of New China.
Weiming Yang, hydraulic expert of Jingzhou Municipal YangtzeRiver Channel Management Bureau expresses that, the Jingjiang Levee followingthe reinforcement is already no longer what it was before, and the 2,031-kilometerlevees in Jingzhouare all more than 1 meter higher than the highest floodlevel in 1998.
In 2013, China launched a comprehensive regulationproject of the Jingjiang Levee, carrying out cut-off walls building, deep pondfilling and levee gardening. Initial work began on the rebuilding of highway topof levee and new technology of vertical cut-off wall was widely applied to thelevee body.
The peace of rivers is the expectation of Jingzhou peoplefor thousands of years. The comprehensive regulation project of Jingjiang Leveefrom 2013 to 2018 with a total investment of 1.8 billion yuan is principally completed,greatly enhancing the flood control and security capability in the flood season.Now, the Jingjiang Levee featuring"one levee matches one road with two protective belts along the levee"has become a beautiful scenery line.
In recent years, with the implementation of the greatprotection strategy of the Yangtze River, Jingzhou has kept the instructions ofthe General Secretary in mind, embraced responsibility with passion, held highthe "baton" of green development, vigorously carried out theregulation on the riverbank of the Yangtze River, and comprehensively launchedthe afforestation project campaign on both sides of the Yangtze River.A new painting of "The beautyof Yangtze River lies in Jingjiang" is slowly unfolding.