"Boss, you also know that my research direction is not in water conservancy, so I don't have any good suggestions. It would be more valuable to listen to the speeches of other experts and scholars," Zhao Yi said.
He had previously wondered why he was invited to attend such a meeting. It turned out that in addition to owning a large number of industries in the northwest region, he had also considered the Hongqi River plan he had proposed before.
After all, the Hongqihe plan was somewhat involved with him. If he himself was not present and it was rejected internally, it would indeed be a bit disrespectful to his opinion.
Although he is indeed not an expert in water conservancy and has no tangible results in this area, after all, he is also an academician of the two academies and a top scientific researcher, so he should still be given the respect he deserves.
And as the helmsman of the largest private consortium in the country, if a large water conservancy plan is really to be implemented, his interests will be involved. From this aspect, his presence is also very necessary.
When the leader heard what he said, he did not give him any more trouble. Although his academic status was indeed very high, when it came to water conservancy research, other experts and scholars did have more say.
However, his modesty, combined with his decisive decision to abandon the Hongqi River plan after his rational analysis and his self-criticism, further won the favor of experts and scholars on the scene.
Generally speaking, people with greater academic achievements are more likely to be stubborn. Of course, some of this stubbornness is due to true self-judgment, and some is purely a matter of will.
Zhao Yi is only in his twenties and has outstanding academic achievements. Generally, such people are more competitive. To be honest, the experts who just refuted the Hongqihe plan are actually mentally prepared to be refuted.
Although he is already over 50 years old, in terms of academic achievements, there is a big gap between him and the young Zhao Yi. He only has certain research results and qualifications in his field.
So before he came, he had actually made full preparations like a battle. He even had a rough idea of the debate ideas, so that he could ensure that he could deal with it calmly after throwing out his judgment.
What he didn't expect was that Zhao Yi would admit so simply that he didn't think well. This was something he never expected. All the preparations he had done before would be of no use.
To be honest, because Zhao Yi is notoriously difficult to deal with, some experts and scholars have lost face in front of him before. In addition, there are not many people in the academic field who have contact with him, so many people are a little afraid of him.
Of course, if you can really silence his point of view, it will also improve your academic reputation in a disguised way, and even gain praise from some people.
In fact, Zhao Yi thinks there is nothing wrong with such a debate. Although it seems a bit discordant, as long as it is a rational debate based on facts, the final result is often benign and good.
The so-called lack of clarity means that no matter how great the views put forward by scholars are, as long as there are points that can be refuted, one should bravely stand up and refute them, instead of choosing to keep things quiet for the sake of face or fear of retaliation.
We must know that academic research is actually a stack of buildings. If the basic theory has serious flaws, then the research done on this basis is destined to be wrong, and as time goes by, it will go on the wrong path. the further away.
Therefore, he especially appreciates people who bravely stand up to refute authority figures. Of course, this refutation must be a rational refutation based on full thinking and research, rather than a sensational performance.
At least the expert who just refuted the Hongqihe plan was relatively well prepared. Several opinions were on the point. Even without seeing their specific theoretical supporting data, Zhao Yi felt that his previous thoughts were too naive. .
Although during his analysis, he felt that the cost of the Hongqi River project was reasonable and could be reduced through technical means, he himself also believed that currently, it was not cost-effective to dig the Hongqi River project.
According to his previous idea, special equipment could be used to pull the water vapor above the ocean deep into the continent to form rainfall. This solution can fundamentally solve the problem of drought and water shortage deep in the interior.
A relevant research team has even been set up to study the theory and technology in this area, but the current results are not there, and it is even still in the stage of accumulating meteorological data.
Therefore, he believes that this high-end solution is unlikely to be effective in a short period of time. He just hopes that there will be tangible results in the future to fundamentally solve the problem.
Because in his understanding, although there has always been a problem of water shortage in the north, it should not be particularly prominent in a short period of time. It will still be a long time.
It's just that this time the Ministry of Water Resources actually held such a meeting to discuss water resources issues in the northwest or north, which shows that the current situation has reached a level that requires attention. Although it may not have reached the warning line, the change in trend is definitely alarming.
Otherwise, there is no need to be so anxious. Relevant research groups and teams can be formed internally to conduct preliminary research on solutions to the overall water shortage in the north.
In this case, there is no need to invite him over. After all, he has nothing to do with water conservancy at all. Even the contracted "Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Guangdong" Grand Canal is still in the exploration stage, and it will not be possible until at least the end of this year. Commencement of construction and implementation.
Moreover, the "Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Guangdong" Grand Canal has nothing to do with solving the water shortage problem in the north. Is it to ask him to invest in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project? At least he didn't think it was possible.
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is destined not to be for profit, and private operation cannot be sustained for a long time. Moreover, the government's finances are relatively abundant now, so there is no need for private capital to participate.
This shows that this meeting is not just an internal discussion, but hopes to form a practical solution and even come up with a rough implementation roadmap if possible.
This is why the meeting lasted for three days. If it was just a retreat meeting, it wouldn't take that long at all. It would be over in one day.
"Since there are certain problems with the Hongqi River plan, the idea of asking for water from southern Tibet must be temporarily shelved. The only thing left is to transfer water from the south. Do you have any suggestions for this?" the leader asked directly.
"It depends on what problem we urgently need to solve now. The northern region is a large area, and even transferring water from the south cannot solve all the water shortage problems in the north at once," said an expert.
Although the general idea of transferring water from the south has been determined, there is always a priority. If there is no clear goal of the problem that needs to be solved, then the specific details cannot be discussed.
After hearing the expert's words, the leader responded directly: "At present, our country's food security problem has been fundamentally solved, and agricultural water can basically remain sufficient, so there are two aspects to the problem solved this time.
The first aspect is to solve the water problem for residents in northern my country, which involves the number of beneficiaries. Therefore, the current focus is to solve the water problem for residents in the Bohai Rim urban agglomeration and areas near Kyoto.
The second aspect is to solve the problem of insufficient water resources for industrial development in the north. The scope of this involvement is a bit large. For example, the Beijing-ring and Bohai Bay areas have many industrial enterprises and are priority areas.
At the same time, in Xi'an, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and other places in the northwest, it is also necessary to develop the local economy. A moderate industrial layout is necessary, which also requires a certain amount of water for industrial development. "
The practice in the previous life was that industry was relatively concentrated, and it was basically located in coastal areas and southern regions. As for the industry in the northwest, there was only a small amount of layout.
Because we did not have the ability to achieve balanced development at that time, and there were indeed certain disadvantages in developing industry in the northwest region. It would be more efficient and convenient to centrally establish an industrial chain, which is also very consistent with our economic development through international trade. ideas.
But the current situation is very different from the previous life. Although we are indeed opening up the prelude to domestic economic development through the development of foreign trade, we can achieve complete autonomy in terms of capital, industrial technology, agricultural technology, etc.
In this case, a balanced development strategy has certain feasibility. In particular, the agricultural development in the northwest region has shown great potential. The industrial processing industry surrounding these agricultural raw materials still has great development prospects. .
Therefore, there is no reason not to deploy certain industrial industries in the northwest region. Even if it is only facing the domestic market, there is still a lot of room for development.
And now the ultra-high-speed railway with a speed of 500 kilometers per hour has been experimentally verified and has begun large-scale construction across the country, and the ultra-high-speed and over-heavy freight train technology promised by Zhao Yi is also under intense research and development.
This solves the problem of cargo transportation in the northwest region. Although the cost is indeed higher than that of sea transportation, as the price of electricity drops further, it can well solve the problem of cost balance.
That’s why the leaders specifically raised the issue of water resources needed for industrial development in northwest China as an aspect, hoping to solve this problem.
“If we look at the size of the population and industrial groups involved, we need to give priority to ensuring the water shortage problem in the Huanghuai River Basin.
As for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project plan, it was actually proposed in 1952 when the Communist Party of China inspected the Yellow River. Later, we also conducted relevant research on this proposal.
To temporarily solve the water shortage problem in the Huanghuai River Basin, our suggestion is to build the central and eastern routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which is feasible to a certain extent.
The middle line project starts from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the middle and upper reaches of the Han River, passes through Fangcheng Pass, the watershed between the Yangtze River Basin and the Huaihe River Basin, digs channels along the central and western edges of the North China Plain, and crosses the Yellow River through tunnels.
It runs north along the west side of the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and flows to Tuancheng Lake in the Summer Palace in Kyoto. The water receiving area is 14 large and medium-sized cities along the line, focusing on solving the water shortage problem in the four provinces and cities of Henan, Hebei, Kyoto and Tianjin.
According to our calculations, the total area within the water supply range is about 150,000 square kilometers, the total length of the main water transmission canals is about 1,200 kilometers, and the Tianjin water transmission branch line is about 150 kilometers long.
The east line project starts from the Jiangdu Water Conservancy Hub to pump water. It uses the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and its parallel rivers to transport water, connecting Hongze Lake, Luoma Lake, Nansi Lake, and Dongping Lake, and serves as a regulation and storage reservoir. It is pumped step by step through the pumping station. After the water is lifted into Dongping Lake, it is divided into two routes.
It crosses the Yellow River all the way north and then flows to Tianjin. The main water transmission line from the Yangtze River to Tianjin Beidagang Reservoir is about 1,100 kilometers long.
The other route is to go east through the main water transmission line in the agitation area that needs to be opened to connect the Huangjiqing Channel to provide water supply to the Jiaodong area.
The entire eastern route project passes through the three provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei, transporting production and domestic water to North China. "
After talking about the middle and moving routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the expert took a sip of tea and continued: “As for the western route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the main purpose is to solve the water shortage problem in the northwest region.
It refers to the long-distance water diversion project from the Yangtze River system such as the Yalong River and Dadu River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Sichuan to the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi.
The purpose is to supplement the shortage of water resources in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, solve the drought and water shortage in northwest my country, and promote the management and development of the Yellow River. The dam site is located at an altitude of 2,900-4,000 meters. "
After listening to this expert's discussion of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, everyone nodded in approval. It is likely that these experts jointly completed the work.
Water shortage in northern my country is a long-term problem. Since the problem exists, it is natural to form a relevant research team in advance to conduct route exploration and research. Therefore, Zhao Yi was not surprised to hear about the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in this era.
And after listening to the expert's story, Zhao Yi compared some memories he searched in his mind, and they were basically consistent. This shows that such a plan has a certain degree of executability.
There are two main problems we are facing now. The first is the scale of investment. After all, food and grass will go before the troops are deployed, so an estimate must be made before implementation; the second is the amount of water transfer.
Regarding the scale of investment, Zhao Yi feels that given my country’s current level of industrialization and economic development, if it is really going to be done, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
As for the amount of water transfer, he remembered that the total water transfer scale in the previous life was about 44.8 billion cubic meters. According to the current economic development rate, it can probably meet the water shortage of northern residents in the next 20 years or so.
The problem is that it will take a long time to complete all the projects. Once these projects are completed, it won't be long before they may face water shortages again.
As expected, the subsequent discussion turned to the discussion of investment scale. After all, if the funding problem is not solved, then there is no need to discuss subsequent issues.
If you want to solve the funding problem, you must first assess the scale of funding demand. Based on discussions with on-site experts, we finally arrived at an investment scale of approximately 200 billion yuan.
Zhao Yi, a wealthy man, had a headache when he heard this figure. Although the urbanization projects he was executing were all invested in trillions of yuan.
However, the benefits brought by urbanization construction projects are much higher than those of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Even if they rely on loans, they can have a clear estimate of their repayment ability.
The investment in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is so large, and the water price cannot be set too high, and the rate of return is really too low. At least from a businessman's perspective, it is not worth the investment.
However, as a national strategic project, it is not only necessary to calculate the economic accounts on the surface, but also the people's livelihood accounts behind it. From a national level, it is a project worth investing in.
Sure enough, after listening to the investment assessment, the leader said directly: "The country cannot afford so much money for investment at the moment, so it is more appropriate to implement it step by step. The construction cycle may last for decades."
In fact, the leader has something to say. According to the priority, investment in the central and eastern routes must be done first. First, the difficulty of the project is relatively low. Second, the number of people benefiting is larger, and it will have a greater role in promoting the economic development of the north.
Don't look at Zhao's willingness to spend tens of billions of yuan to build the "Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Guangdong" Grand Canal and other related canals. That's because there is indeed a certain profit margin.
The most important thing is that this project will greatly promote the economic development of his hometown. As a rich man, there is nothing wrong with making some contributions to his hometown, and he is willing to do so if his ability allows.
Through the "Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Guangdong" Grand Canal and related canals, the originally relatively closed geographical environment of Jiangxi has been transformed into a large-scale freight outflow channel through the canal, allowing Jiangxi's economy to completely get rid of the constraints of transportation.
Moreover, the two are not on the same level, regardless of project difficulty, duration, or project investment scale. Even he needs to carefully consider such a large investment scale.
Although the domestic economy has developed rapidly in recent years and the scale of government fiscal revenue has continued to hit new highs, correspondingly, the places where money is spent have also increased rapidly, and the fiscal balance is not large.
Therefore, it is basically impossible to rely solely on finance to support the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. The only option is to obtain private financing or bank loans.
During the discussion, Zhao Yi remained silent throughout the whole process. First, he did not have much research on these things, so he did not have a big say. Second, he was afraid that if he spoke too much, he would attract the attention of the leader and then put forward his idea. onto his head.
After all, his investment in the "Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Guangdong" Grand Canal and related canals is not a secret, at least in front of the leaders of the Ministry of Water Resources.
When he heard that about 200 billion yuan was needed to be invested, he realized that the purpose of inviting him here might not be very simple, and might not be the reasons he had thought of before.
Sure enough, when the investment situation was almost analyzed, the leader turned to him and asked: "Academician Zhao, please don't remain silent throughout the whole process. Although it may not be very relevant to your research direction, if you have any suggestions or opinions, you can still express them. Yes."
When he heard that the leader mentioned his name, he could only say: "After listening to the discussions of experts, it is still necessary to construct the central and eastern routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and it can indeed solve the water shortage problem in the north to a certain extent.
I completely agree with the discussion results of the experts. As for the suggestions, I won’t go into specifics. The experts have all thought more comprehensively.
But what I want to know is whether transferring a large amount of water from the south will cause the water level of the southern waters to drop, affect normal production and life in the south, and whether it will bring adverse climate changes to the south. "
Regarding this discussion, Zhao Yi knew enough about it in his previous life, so he was more concerned about it. After all, the southern economy and population size accounted for the largest proportion in our country.
Just because we want to solve the problems in the north and bring problems to the south will lead to a situation where the gourd floats up when the gourd is pressed down, there must be a relatively accurate study and prediction in this regard.
Although Zhao Yi did not put forward any constructive suggestions, the issue he raised is also an aspect that must be considered in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
Therefore, both leaders and experts at the scene recognized his question. Obviously, they also had certain research results in this regard, so after Zhao Yi's question was raised, there were experts to answer it. (End of chapter)