Both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River flow into the sea in vain. Our country is so short of water, why not build dams to fully utilize it?

Both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River flow into the sea in vain. Our country is so short of water, why not build dams to fully utilize it?

We know that the overall trend of precipitation in my country is more in the east and less in the west, more in the south and less in the north, more in summer and less in winter. In the past, because rainfall was unevenly distributed in time and space, excessive rainfall would lead to local floods, and in years with less rainfall, drought would occur.

In addition, with the development of industrialization and the increase in the world's population, the demand for freshwater resources has soared. Especially in some areas with a higher degree of industrialization, there is more demand for water resources, so that our country There is a shortage of fresh water resources in some places.

If we can store the fresh water resources of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, we can greatly alleviate the demand for fresh water in areas with water shortages. But why don’t we do this and let the water of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers flow into the sea in vain? ?

According to statistics from the Ministry of Water Resources, 400 of the 669 cities in the country have insufficient water supply and 110 are seriously short of water. Among them, 9 cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Dalian have the most serious water shortages

The annual runoff of the Yangtze River is more than 960 billion cubic meters, and that of the Yellow River is about 57.4 billion. So much water flows into the sea in vain. Why can't we store it to meet our urgent needs?

In fact, the birth of human civilization is inseparable from water. In ancient times, limited by transportation, technology, etc., people could only develop agriculture on both sides of the river. It can also be said conversely that it was the great rivers that gave rise to human civilization. Among the earliest four ancient countries, each country had a river, such as the Ganges and Indus rivers in ancient India; the Tigris and Euphrates in ancient Babylonia. River; the Nile River in ancient Egypt; the Yangtze River and the Yellow River in China.

However, living around big rivers has a disadvantage, that is, rivers will flood. Therefore, at the beginning of many civilizations, there are legends of great floods, such as: Noah’s Ark in Western stories, my country’s Dayu controlled floods.

Roughly speaking, the storage capacity of the Yangtze River is 280130 (South-to-North Water Diversion) = 293 billion cubic meters, which is close to 1/3 of the total runoff of the Yangtze River. About 2/3 of the water flows into the sea in vain. At present, The main purpose is to solve the problem of how to store water in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

I have read relevant information on Caiye.com before. The reason why the Yangtze River’s water resources are so large is because its source is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where many peaks reach an altitude of more than 6,000m. , perennial snow is the most typical geographical feature of this region. Coupled with the 2,000-meter high mountain canyon in the Jinsha River section, the Tiger Leaping Gorge with a drop of 210 meters and a total length of 17 kilometers, all have contributed to the formation of rich water resources here

The Yangtze River is the fourth largest river in the world. It is better for us to be afraid of it. After all, it has a flow of more than 960 billion. We cannot swallow it in one go and regulate it as we wish. This is good, as it can retain the basic properties of the river and play an important role in maintaining the ecological balance in the Yangtze River Basin.

In other words, in order to maximize the utilization of water resources, we have built many large-scale projects, which can be said to "squeeze out" the value of every drop of water.

However, the reason why the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers still discharge a large amount of freshwater resources into the sea every year is actually because the water volumes of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are large. If all of them are intercepted, floods will occur in most areas of our country. So the water that should flow to the sea still has to flow.

Furthermore, organisms in the water need to flow into the sea. If the water from the Yangtze River and Yellow River no longer flows into the sea, many organisms will be unable to reproduce or survive, and even species will become extinct.

Of course, even if we build more dams and achieve full control of the flow of water in the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, it is theoretically difficult to achieve the ability to utilize all water resources. Because reservoirs and lakes have multiple functions such as prevention and control, drought relief, shipping, and sand control, it is impossible to store water resources without taking into account other functions such as flood control, shipping, and sand control. The simplest example is that the weather forecast indicates that there will be a round of continuous heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the future, and the incoming water will exceed the capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir. We can only empty the storage capacity in advance to reduce the flood peak. After all, flood control is the biggest function of the Three Gorges Dam.

In addition, both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River actually contain a large amount of sediment, but the Yangtze River is not so obvious. The water storage of the river is not as simple as storing water in a water tank at home. After the river intercepts and stores water for a period of time, A large amount of sediment will be produced at the bottom of the river, and if it is not discharged in time, it will cause large-scale siltation. Dongting Lake is actually a living case, so artificial water storage is only temporary.