"Don't forget to dig a well when drinking water?" How difficult is it for people in mountainous areas to drink water?

When you can enjoy the convenient water resources just by reaching out and turning on the tap, have you ever thought about the draught and water use in arid areas and remote mountainous areas? When you feel that water resources are inexhaustible and profligate, have you ever thought that the earth will be short of water one day?

It suddenly occurred to me that many years ago, when I was playing at my good friend Su Bo's house in the county, my aunt asked me about the water consumption in my hometown, so I wrote this article.

one

My hometown, Luonan County, is located at the southern foot of Qinling Mountains, the sun of Huashan Mountain, so it is mountainous.

Our village is on a low mountain at the junction of Shimen Town and Maping Town.

Hometown people are called "old pink baby", because it is backed by green hills and faced with sorghum, which naturally forms a depression. Behind my house is the graveyard of an old ancestor, which is the origin of the name "Old Pink Baby".

It is said that in the past, Laofenwa was a dense forest. Because there is a Maping River at the foot of the mountain, it often floods, and generations have suffered from floods, so they moved from the foot of the mountain to the mountain.

After several generations of reproduction, hard work and land reclamation, the present village has been formed.

Mountain people work at sunrise and rest at sunset. Every year, facing the loess and facing the sky, plant some crops and enjoy the happiness by God.

two

After moving to the mountain, the flood problem was solved, but people's drinking water became a long-standing problem.

I remember when I was a child, there used to be a pumping station in Jiaobianzi (the lowest place in the whole mountain village). It is said that it was built in the period of agricultural society, with the purpose of pumping water from the mountain to the mountain to irrigate farmland and people's daily water. But it was abandoned because of transportation difficulties.

I remember that at that time, people dug many large waterlogging pools in front of and behind the house, which not only solved some daily water problems, but also became a paradise for friends to play.

I remember that every summer after the white rain, the waterlogged pool will be filled with a pool of yellow mud water. At this time, frogs can be heard from far and near every night, just like a symphony, which makes the quiet village particularly lively.

A group of our friends went to the waterlogged pool to play in groups of three or five. Sometimes we braved the heavy rain to the "Lei Reservoir" by the waterlogging pool, sometimes we held an umbrella to knead clay figurines by the waterlogging pool, and sometimes we waited for the rain to stop before calling our friends.

What impressed me the most was that we dug a small canal next to the waterlogging pool, and every once in a while, a small partner was responsible for digging a "small reservoir" alone. I am the chief water conservancy commander in the upstream, and my friends in the downstream constantly reinforce the dam of their small reservoir with mud.

I shouted, "All departments get ready and start discharging water!" "So I kicked the" big reservoir "upstream, and a torrent instantly washed away all the dams in the cheers of my partners. That kind of fun is beyond the reach of children nowadays.

It is also dangerous to play by the waterlogged pool, because once the water rises, you can't tell where the shore is. If you are not careful, you will fall into a pool full of water. Once, after the heavy rain, my friends and I played in the reeds in front of the door. Cousin Minzhe took his black dog to play in the reeds. We met him in the reeds, and the black dog jumped on me, scaring me to stumble and fall into the pool full of water. When my father heard the cry, he quickly took a shovel for me to catch before he fished me out.

When it rains, yellow water flows in the waterlogged pool, and dead mice, firewood sticks and plastic bags are floating everywhere. So the water in the waterlogged pool can only be fed to pigs, washed clothes and watered the land.

When it doesn't rain, the water in the waterlogged pool will recede a little. In a dry year, the waterlogged pool directly dries and cracks. Finally, there is only a pool of water in the middle, which is full of tadpoles and all kinds of plankton. When the waterlogging pool is completely dried up, sometimes a large number of frogs, earthworms and even a nest of snakes can be dug up in the cracked soil.

After decades, thousands of kilometers away from home, I can often dream of carrying water or playing by the pool full of water.

three

It turns out that people in the mountains need to take Wulishan Road to the "water intake hole" under the ravine to carry water. The "water inlet" is actually a pool less than one meter square. Water gushed out slowly from the ground, the pool was crystal clear, and a group of fish swam freely.

Every time my father comes back with a handful of water, I try to rush over to see if there are any fish in the bucket. Then I picked up the horse spoon and scooped up a spoonful of water, slurping like a cow. That water is a real mountain spring, cool and delicious, and a little sweet.

Occasionally learn from adults to carry water and shake it all the way. Often when I get home, there are only half barrels left in both barrels.

Later, the water in the "inlet" gradually became smaller, and finally became a stagnant pool with a layer of green cotton and dead leaves floating.

People have to carry water in further canyons. I remember that there is an unfathomable cave behind Xuefeng's home in Huanggou, where there is a spring water that has never dried up from generation to generation. Some people say that there is a white dragon in the cave, so there has always been water, but no one has seen it. This is just a legend.

four

About twenty years ago, with the support of the government's policy of benefiting the people, villagers began to dig dry wells to store water, thus solving the drinking water problem of most people, and people no longer have to walk so far to carry water.

Dry wells are generally five to eight meters deep, and the inner walls are bound with stones and then leveled with cement to prevent water leakage. Buy another plastic pipe with a diameter of one foot wide, split it in the middle and fix it under the eaves with an iron hook. When it rains, the rainwater will flow down the half-moon pipeline, concentrate in the "filter pool" under the eaves, and then flow into the dry well along the buried pipeline.

However, that kind of water will always have a strong alkaline and cement taste! I was once worried that people would get sick if they drank that water for a long time.

Almost ten years ago, considering the inconvenient transportation and difficulty in drinking water, the government gave each household a subsidy of 30 thousand yuan to move to the foot of the mountain. At that time, 90% people moved away. Some people, including my father, refused to move.

Father thinks that 30 thousand yuan is far from enough to build a house, not to mention that our family has no savings at all.

But I know that the main reason is that he has the idea of "moving to another place" and he doesn't want to leave the place where his ancestors lived. I have lived and worked in that land for most of my life and have a deep attachment to it.

In any case, we would like to thank the government for coming up with the idea of "digging dry wells" and solving the drinking water problem of villagers. This is a real measure to benefit the people and deserves praise!