Tam Mon Hiep Dam - bitter lesson in Chinese history

If Chinese scientists in the 1950s dared to tell the truth as irrigation expert Hoang Van Ly, even if it was 'against the ears' of leadership, then surely the people of the Yellow River would not have to stand down. miserable about Tam Mon Hiep lake for more than half a century (and never before).

Tam Mon Hiep Dam on Hoang Ha River.( Photo: Threegorgesprobe )

In 1952, the Chinese government invited the Soviet Union to help set up a water treatment project in the Yellow River, which often caused great flooding in the country. In October 1954, under the direction of the Soviet expert delegation, the Hoang Ha Planning Committee (led by the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Fuel Industry of China as the main force) completed the version: "Planning of advantage synthesis of Yellow River ".

This will be a great-scale project: 46 major dams will be built on the main stream, of which Tam Mon Hiep is the largest; the total generating capacity of the dams is 23 million KW, an average annual production of 110 billion kWh, 10 times more than the total electricity output of China in 1954; irrigated land will range from nearly 17 million Chinese samples to 116 million acres, 500-ton barges can run from the East Sea into Lanzhou.

In September 1960, Tam Mon Hiep reservoir was completed. From the second year, 800 thousand acres of paddy fields on both sides of the river were flooded, to relocate an entire district; Xi'an city is seriously threatened. Since 1972, Hoang Ha started to flow off. Since 1990, the Hoang Ha average has more than 100 days without water. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese farmers have to abandon their fertile lands in their homeland to move to barren lands in remote areas, some people have to move many times to lose their careers. Today, after nearly 50 years, the Yellow River basin is getting worse and worse, the river water in the downstream is barely remaining.

According to People's Daily on February 16, in 2005, people around the lake had to relocate twice due to rising water in the rainy season; 9 in the past 10 years suffered from drought; The average income is less than half of the national average, 297,000 are poor, of which 114,000 are absolute; many property households added less than 20 USD. In short, farmers suffer too much damage from this hydroelectric project. When the government's high-ranking cadres came to the place of observation, they all cried and said the state was indeed at fault with the people.

Irrigation engineer Vuong Duy Lac settled in Germany in the article "celebrating the 40th anniversary of the construction of Tam Mon Hiep works", saying that the cost of this project is equivalent to the cost of 40 bridges in Truong Giang Wuhan; subsequent rehabilitation costs and economic losses caused by this project to areas that are too big to count.

It is expected that the Chinese people will not have to suffer from the above consequences if they listen and receive the opinions of the irrigation scientist Hoang Van Ly - Thanh Hoa University professor. Of course, when the state raised the issue of constructing Tam Mon Hiep irrigation project, he was the first person to participate.

From the beginning, Hoang Van Ly said: The Soviet Union has a lot of experience in building hydropower, but they do not understand the problem of the Yellow River. Unlike the rivers in the Soviet Union, the Yellow River has a lot of silt and it will be a source of disaster later. But at that time from experts to leaders heard the opinion of the Soviet expert (although this expert team consisted of water experts, not irrigation). The leaders of the state were more and more unanimous in agreeing with the dream of " Thanh Nhan, Hoang Ha thanh " (Saint appeared, Hoang Ha was clean). In such a one-way extreme atmosphere, the responsible experts of the project did not dare to persevere their views, praising the expert's master plan. Only Hoang Van Ly was the only one who dared to openly oppose this work. He said: " I told the Yellow King could not be honest . Hoang Ha is not a public, but a sin ."

On June 10, 1957, the conference discussed the Tam Mon Hiep Irrigation Area meeting in Beijing, at which time the project began to prepare for construction. During the conference there was a fierce debate between those who agreed and opposed the design of the Soviet Union and Hoang Van Ly. Phai concurred, drawing a grand picture: building a high dam, preventing flood water, accumulating sand, causing water to flow from the lake to be clear without sediment. Hoang Van Ly alone said: if dams are built on a river section with sediment, the downstream flood of Hoang Ha will move to the middle section. He said that alluvial water in the river has a natural effect to divide upstream and downstream continents. Building dams to prevent the river from being "in" water is against the law of nature, so dams in and out of the reservoir are not conducive to the river downstream. He said: after flooding, it will flood the fields, causing damage to cities near the lake.

The controversy lasted 7 days, most experts agreed with the Soviet design. Professor Hoang Van Ly proposed: if it is necessary to have a dam, do not seal 6 drainage tunnels so that the sand discharge pipes can be placed later. This view is adopted by the whole conference. But when constructing, Soviet experts kept the old design, sealing all 6 underground sewers. In the 1970s, China spent 1.2 million USD to reopen these gates.

Tam Mon Hiep has become an expensive lesson for all leaders who have not really respected science and democracy. On the other hand, scientists need to understand how far their dishonesty can cause great catastrophe.

The Yellow River is the second largest river in China, over 5,400 km long, originating in the northern province of Qinghai, flowing through many provinces and then passing through Bohai in Shandong Province. The basin of the Huang River is over 752 thousand square kilometers, which is the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization. The Yellow River flows through the Hoang Lo plateau (yellow soil), the average height is 1000-2000 meters, the flowing water contains very high sand content. The river downstream reaches the plains, the water flows slowly, the sediment settles much, the riverbed is higher than the two banks, forming "river on earth". Due to such characteristics, in the rainy season, the Yellow River frequently caused floods that caused many catastrophic disasters in history, such as the 1937 flood that killed 3.7 million people, irreversible economic losses.