Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Water Resources

　　【Overview】 The Party Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources attaches great importance to poverty alleviation work and always takes poverty reduction by water conservancy construction as a political task. For a long time, based on its industrial advantage, the Ministry of Water Resources kept conducting explorations and summarizing experience, forming two "trinity" water conservancy-based poverty alleviation patterns: Adhere to simultaneous implementation of fixed-pointed water conservancy-based poverty alleviation, pilot water conservancy-based poverty alleviation projects and the water conservancy-based poverty alleviation in other regions; adhere to the main means and channels of project support, counterpart support and sending cadres, strengthen the water conservancy construction of impoverished regions, focus on the construction of rural drinking water projects, farmland and water conservancy, rural hydropower, soil and water conservation, hydrological projects and technology education, and increase support for the water conservancy work in poor areas to provide water conservancy support and guarantee for the masses of poor areas to shake off poverty and develop regional economy.

　　In 2011, in accordance with the guiding ideology of sustainable water management, focusing on people's livelihood and water conservancy construction, the Ministry of Water Resources further increased financial support for the water conservancy projects of poor areas, carried out water conservancy-based poverty alleviation in the fixed-point poverty reduction, pilot projects and the anti-poverty work in other regions and has made some achievements. On the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development held in 2011, the Poverty Alleviation Office of the Ministry of Water Resources was titled as “Advanced Unit for Poverty Alleviation and Development in China”.

　　【Poverty alleviation conference】 On December 2, 2011, the Minister and Party Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Chen Lei presided over the cadre meeting to convey and implement the spirit of the central poverty alleviation conference, convey the spirit of the important speeches delivered by General Secretary Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, implement the strategic deployment made by the central poverty alleviation conference and make arrangements for the water conservancy-based poverty alleviation work in the new decade. All the leaders of the Ministry of Water Resources attended the event. More than 300 people were present at the meeting, including all the civil servants, the leadership of the units directly under the Ministry of Water Resources in Beijing and retired representatives of party committees. Minister Chen Lei made a deployment on the anti-poverty work in the new stage.

　　The meeting proposed six key tasks of the water conservancy-based poverty alleviation and development on the new stage. First, in order to protect and improve people's livelihood, we should comprehensively sold the drinking water and electricity problem of the farmers. Second, in order to ensure the life safety of the masses, we must speed up the improvement of the flood control and disaster mitigation systems. Third, taking the enhancement of food production capacity as the core, we must vigorously develop the construction of farmland and water conservancy projects. Fourth, focusing on soil and water conservation and ecological construction, we should strengthen ecological protection in poor regions. Fifth, starting from the construction of key water conservancy projects, we should constantly enhance the water conservancy capacity of impoverished regions. Sixth, we should strengthen the water management to lay a solid foundation for the development of water conservancy in poor areas.

　　【Poverty alleviation planning】After the promulgation and implementation of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”, the Ministry of Water Resources actively prepared the planning and made every effort to do a good job of top-level design for poverty alleviation through the development of water conservancy. Vice Minister and Deputy Party Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Jiao Yong held three leading group meetings to make deployments for the planning preparation for water conservancy-based poverty reduction in China during the period from 2011 to 2020. The Ministry of Water Resources issued the relevant documents before the end of the year, required 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and six watershed agencies to prepare the “Planning for National Water conservancy-based Poverty Alleviation” and, based on the poverty features and water conservancy situation, and put forward targeted objectives and tasks, work contents and main measures for water conservancy-based poverty alleviation to provide a scientific basis for the water conservation work in poor areas. The Planning covered all the 11 contiguous poor areas and key counties for national poverty alleviation and development and included the anti-poverty planning of the poor counties involved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation of the Ministry of Water Resources and the pilot areas for water conservancy-based poverty alleviation such as Tongren and Bijie of Guizhou into the overall planning for poverty alleviation. The Planning was developed to guide the development of water conservancy in impoverished regions. Through water conservancy construction, it aims to help poor areas solve drinking water, irrigation and flood control problems and provide water conservancy support and guarantee for the economic and social development of poor areas and the poverty reduction of the masses.

　　【Poverty alleviation by project construction】 In 2011, more than 17 billion Yuan of central financial funds was issued for the water conservancy construction in poor areas. In the special planning for drinking water security, dam reinforcement, water-saving transformation of irrigation areas, the construction of key water resource projects, the construction of electricity counties in new rural areas, the construction of ecological protection projects using small hydroelectric facilities to replace fuels and the rural hydropower synergistic expansion and renovation, priority was given to poverty-stricken areas to promote the water conservancy construction of poor areas, improve the production and living levels of farmers and boost the regional economic and social development. In the whole year, we solved the drinking water safety problem of more than 9 million rural residents, carried out reinforcement work for more than 700 small dangerous reservoirs and ten big/medium-sized dangerous reservoirs, increased and improved irrigation area of more than 1.6 million mu, and enhanced the water supply capacity by 108 million cubic meters and rural hydropower installed capacity by 1.874 million kw.

　　【Intellectual poverty alleviation】 In 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources sent nine cadres with high political quality and strong working ability to serve the poor areas, organized 18 backbone cadres for grassroots water conservancy construction to conduct exchange in the ministerial organs to provide personnel support for the development of impoverished regions. Meanwhile, it held eight trainings on rural water supply, water resource construction and management for impoverished regions for 500 person-times, implemented the water conservancy technology promotion projects, coordinated relevant universities to open up demonstration stations for poverty alleviation by distance education, and actively send technology and knowledge to poor areas, welcomed by the masses.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】 In 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources continued to conduct fixed-point poverty alleviation in seven key counties, namely Chengkou County of Chongqing, Wuxi County, Kai County, Yunyang County, Fengdu County, Wulong County and Fang County of Hubei Province.

1. Seminar on fixed-point poverty alleviation held by the Ministry of Water Resources. On May 6, 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources held in Chongqing the seminar on fixed-point poverty alleviation and made deployments on the work. Minister and Party Secretary Chen Lei attended the event and delivered an important speech. Vice Minister and Deputy Party Secretary Jiao Yong presided over the meeting. The conference listened to the work reports of the Working Team of Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation, Fang County, Wulong and Fengdu County. Relevant representatives of the Planning Department, Water Conservation Department and the Department of Agricultural Water Conservancy respectively delivered a speech. The counties involved held talks on the fixed-point poverty alleviation. The meeting conducted overall mobilization and deployment on the fixed-point poverty alleviation of water conservancy departments in a certain period of time in the future, clarified the overall requirements, objectives, tasks and relevant measures for the anti-poverty work.

2. Implement the poverty alleviation projects. In 2011, a total of 594.42 million Yuan of central funds was invested in water conservancy construction of seven poor counties involved. Through the construction of a large number of water conservancy projects, we further improved the water conservancy facility system of the poor counties, enhanced the capacity for sustainable economic and social development, provided a good water conservancy support and guarantee for the production increase of agriculture and income growth of farmers, and further boosted the poverty reduction in poor areas and among the impoverished people. In the whole year, we solved the drinking water safety problem of 410,000 rural residents, constructed some county-level embankment projects and a large number of town embankment projects, completed the reinforcement of 78 key small dangerous reservoirs, protected 730,000 people and farmland of 150,000 mu, and reduced disaster-affected people by 1.57 million. At the same time, we added, restored and improved effective irrigation area of ​​230,000 mu, controlled soil erosion area of ​​241 square kilometers and increased small hydropower installed capacity of 74,000 kilowatts.

3. Send cadres to support poverty alleviation. In 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources continued to send cadres to support poverty alleviation in the grassroots areas and strengthen guidance on and contacts with the poor counties. In the context with the task of water conservancy-based poverty alleviation unclear,  the Ministry of Water Resources continued to send three excellent cadres to serve the poor areas, which strengthened the guidance for poor counties and the contacts with the aiding units and effectively promoted the water conservancy reform and anti-poverty work in poor counties.

4. Strengthen counterpart assistance. 37 organs, bureaus and subordinates directly under the Ministry of Water Resources were divided into seven counterpart assistance groups to support 7 poor counties. In 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources continued to give play to the role of anti-poverty mechanism, actively conducted counterpart construction, student subsidizing and intellectual support activities to help solve the practical problems of the poor counties’ water conservancy departments and poor residents.

(1)  Conduct investigations to find out the demand. In 2011, 82 cadres from the water conservancy departments at all levels were sent to support the poverty reduction in the poor counties involved, including three ministerial leaders, 15 departmental leaders, 41 division heads and 23 office leaders. 37 units and departments assigned the task of fixed-point poverty reduction all actively conducted field research to understand the development situation and demand of the grassroots areas, clarified the objectives and tasks, implemented various measures and further deepened the feelings with the masses and cadres of poor areas.

(2)  Conduct counterpart construction. Following the donation of one million Yuan to Kai County for the construction of flood control command system in 2009, in 2011, we strengthened the technical support for the construction of flood control command system in Kai County. Through joint efforts, the flood control command system was set up in Kai County, which greatly enhanced the commanding capacity for flood control in the county.

(3)  Carry out the activities to donate and deliver warmth to poor students. In 2011, the units concerned donated a total of 234,000 Yuan in cash and 201,000 Yuan in kind. To solve the shortage of educational resources and the backwardness of the working conditions for water conservancy system, we donated more than 10000 books to Fengdu County Cultural Education Center and Shiqiao Town Central School of Wulong County, and subsidized 146 excellent students from needy families.

(4)  Support poverty alleviation by water conservancy construction and increase the research and application of water conservancy technologies in rural water conservancy projects. We successively conducted the “application of gravity valveless filter in farms’ water supply projects” and the “study of the application of long pipeline water supply technology in water supply projects of Yunyang County”, etc, used new water purification technique and the new technology for the construction of long-distance water pipelines to build one tap water treatment plant and one water treatment plant, solved the problems of existing water supply facilities, such as the small size, serious secondary pollution, water shortage, poor quality of water diversion and water loss, and addressed the drinking water safety problem of nearly 60,000 people.

(5)  Organize business trainings and intensify personnel support for poverty reduction. To improve the overall quality of the primary water conservancy staff, based on the shortage of personnel and backward management of the 7 poor counties, we developed the annual business training plan, invited relevant experts and scholars with profound theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience to hold three training courses for 47 managers and technicians, mainly explaining the difficulties, key points and hot issues often encountered in water conservancy work in poverty-stricken counties, involving water supply projects, drinking water treatment technology, water conservancy project construction supervision, water conservancy construction management, water purification technology and technique design and the water users’ association of farmers. In such a way, we helped the trainees broaden horizons and enhanced the ability to deal with practical problems, warmly welcomed by the participants.

　　【Pilot poverty alleviation program】  In 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources continued to conduct pilot poverty reduction by water conservancy construction in 19 counties (cities, districts) of Tongren County and Bijie County (later renamed as Tongren City and Bijie City) of Guizhou Province.

1. Hold the ministerial and provincial joint meeting on the pilot poverty reduction by water conservancy construction. On February 12, 2011, the Ministry of Water Resources and the People's Government of Guizhou Province held in Guiyang City the ministerial and provincial joint meeting on the pilot poverty reduction by water conservancy construction in Tongren and the key support for water conservancy construction in Bijie experimental zone. Vice Minister and Deputy Party Secretary Jiao Yong presided over the meeting and delivered an important speech. Relevant members of the joint meeting, relevant principals of Tongren and Bijie and the principals of pilot area monitoring and assessment units attended the event. The meeting summed up the pilot anti-poverty work in Tongren and Bijie in 2010, analyzed the current situation and main problems and made arrangements for the work of the next phase.

2. Support for water conservancy construction. In 2011, 763.29 million Yuan of central funds was issued for the water conservancy construction in Tongren, mainly to support rural drinking water safety, transformation of dangerous reservoirs and the construction of irrigation areas. We solved the drinking water safety problem of 257,900 people, increased, restored and improved irrigated area of 186,700 mu, remediated 26 dangerous reservoirs and soil erosion area of 50 square kilometers, and increased small hydropower installed capacity of 16,000 kilowatts. 930.39 million Yuan was allocated for the water conservancy construction in Bijie, mainly to support rural drinking water safety, transformation of dangerous reservoirs and the construction of backbone water resource projects. We solved the drinking water safety problem of 1.25 million residents and 57,500 teachers and students, increased, restored and improved irrigated area of 241,600 mu, and remediated 47 dangerous reservoirs and soil erosion area of 206.5 square kilometers.

2. Send cadres to support anti-poverty work. In 2011, we sent one department leader to carry out poverty reduction in Tongren and support the construction of water conservancy projects. Keeping in mind the purpose of poverty alleviation and the teachings of the leadership of the Ministry, the sending cadre conducted field research, studied with an open mind, worked hard and earnestly implemented the guideline for water conservancy-based poverty alleviation, focused on the water conservancy construction of poor areas with a spirit of dedication, full played his role as a link, made an important contribution to the water conservancy-based poverty alleviation and was highly praised by local cadres and the masses. Meanwhile, the capacity of the sending cadre was also improved in the practice.