_ _, _ _ is the cradle of the Chinese nation and one of the cradles of _ _.

The Yellow River Basin has been the cradle of our Chinese nation since ancient times, and it is also one of the birthplaces of ancient world culture.

As the cradle and mother river of the Chinese nation, the Yellow River has not only inherited thousands of years of historical civilization, but also nurtured 8.7% of the population of the motherland (according to statistics in 2000). However, at present, the ecological crisis of the Yellow River is getting worse and worse, facing the grim situation of land desertification, shortage of water resources, increase of soil erosion area, serious water pollution, intensified cut-off and deterioration of living environment, which has sent a serious warning to the people in the basin and even the whole country.

"Bright yellow card" in the source area of the Yellow River

As an important source of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the international river Lancang River, Qinghai Province has attracted worldwide attention because of its special geographical location. However, in recent years, due to natural factors and man-made destruction, the ecological environment in the source areas of the three major rivers in China is still deteriorating and has been "yellow-booked".

Protecting and constructing the ecological environment in the source area of the Yellow River is not only of great significance to the sustainable development of Qinghai's economy and society, but also has a far-reaching impact on the improvement of the ecological environment in the whole Yellow River basin and even the whole country.

In recent years, due to the influence of global warming and human activities, the fragile ecological environment degradation trend in the source area of the Yellow River has intensified, and the ecological problems are very prominent. The area of soil erosion has increased by an average of 265,438+0,000 hectares per year, and the degree of erosion has become more and more serious. At present, the soil erosion in the source area of the Yellow River is the most serious, with an area of 7.5 million hectares, accounting for 17.5% of the total area of the Yellow River basin. More than tens of millions of tons of sediment are imported into the Yellow River every year.

Land desertification has developed rapidly. At present, the spread rate of desertification in the whole province is 2.2%, which is higher than the national average 1.32%. The desertification area of the province has reached 6.5438+0.252 million hectares, and the potential desertification land area is 980,000 hectares, mainly concentrated in the Qaidam Basin, the Yellow River, the river basins and their sources. And it is still expanding at the rate of 6.5438+0.3 million hectares per year. Grassland vegetation is seriously degraded. About 90% of the grasslands in the province have been degraded to varying degrees, with a total area of more than 8.33 million hectares, more than twice that of the 1970s.

The deteriorating ecological environment has caused the source region of the Yellow River, one of the regions with the highest altitude, the largest river wetland area and the most concentrated biodiversity in the world: the function of water conservation has deteriorated, wetlands have shrunk, disasters have occurred frequently, and the ecosystem is extremely fragile. "China Water Tower" is a good name of the source of the Yellow River and an image description of the ecological function of Qinghai Province, but at present, this big water tower is in danger of drying up. In recent years, the upstream level of the Yellow River has decreased by more than 40%, and the wetland area has decreased by nearly 59 square kilometers every year. If the water level of Qinghai Lake drops at the current rate of 12.4 cm per year, this beautiful plateau lake will cease to exist within 100 years.

In order to effectively curb the trend of ecological deterioration, in recent years, under the guidance of the western development policy and the strong support of river basin institutions, Qinghai Province has taken ecological management, construction and reconstruction of beautiful mountains and rivers as the leading direction of future work and development in the source area of the Yellow River, and combined with the actual situation of the province, it has successively carried out ecological engineering construction of water and soil conservation with emphasis on targeted measures such as ecological resource protection, planting trees and grass, soil and water conservation, sand prevention and control, grassland construction and ecological agriculture, and established eight main directions of ecological construction.

It is hoped that this warning of the ecological "bright yellow card" in the source area of the Yellow River will make Chinese people pay attention not only to the ecological security issues around them, but also to the ecological security issues of the Yellow River and even the whole country. Let the Yellow River rejuvenate, restore the original beauty of the source area of the Yellow River, and restore the power that once nurtured a nation and a culture.

"Dust Source" of Hexi Corridor

In recent years, every spring, a flood of yellow sand rises from Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, from northwest to southeast, and almost sweeps across most of China. This "western golden belt", which was once famous for the Silk Road in history, is now fading under the threat of sandstorms, and abandoned villages, abandoned farmland and patches of dead trees can be seen everywhere. It has become a "refugee area" where sand forces people to leave and the ecology is unbalanced. After investigating Hexi Corridor, ecological experts believe that it is not only a big passage for sandstorms in China to move eastward and southward, but also one of the main sources of sandstorms in northern China.

Hexi Corridor starts from Wushaoling in the east, connects Turpan-Hami Basin in the west, reaches Qilian Mountain in the south, and connects Tengger and Badain Jaran Desert in the north. It is 1000 kilometers long from east to west and tens to hundreds of kilometers wide from north to south. The total area is 210.5 million square kilometers, accounting for 50% of the total area of Gansu. For thousands of years, Hexi Corridor is famous for its heavy history: it is not only one of the most important trunk sections of the Silk Road, but also an important battlefield for the Central Plains dynasty and the national regime to compete with each other; But also witnessed the exchange, migration, communication, struggle and integration of all ethnic groups.

However, due to the dual factors of nature and man-made, Hexi Corridor has become one of the most serious desertification areas in China, and it is also the chief culprit of "sandstorm". Tengger Desert and Badain Jaran Desert in the north are accelerating their southward migration. The water conservation belt in the north and south Qilian Mountains has also increased the snow line due to drought. In the central oasis, with the intensification of human activities, water resources are getting less and less, and a large area of cultivated land is desertified, showing the trend of entering sand and retreating sand. According to statistics, the desertification area in Hexi area is expanding at the rate of 6.5438 0.2 million square kilometers per year, and the desertification area is 789,000 mu more than that before liberation. Of the grassland area of 87,000 square kilometers, 80% is seriously degraded. In the past, the "pearl" in the corridors such as Minqin, Jinta and Wuwei has become the main source of dust when there is wind. According to the road map of sandstorm photographed by satellite, almost all sandstorms that occurred in northwest China in recent ten years approached North China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River along the Hexi Corridor.

Ecological experts believe that desertification in Hexi Corridor is first caused by natural causes such as drought, water shortage and windy. Secondly, the unreasonable activities of human beings have intensified the destruction of ecology. In the past, Hexi Corridor has always been the main area for resettlement and development of Gansu immigrants. In the past 20 years, 30,000 immigrants10 have been resettled from poverty-stricken areas in central and southern Gansu. With the increase of population, the phenomenon of indiscriminate reclamation and grazing has been repeatedly banned. Relevant data show that at present, the grassland area in Hexi Corridor is generally overloaded by 30%-50%, and even reaches 100% in serious areas.

Fortunately, in recent years, the ecological crisis in Hexi Corridor has attracted great attention from relevant state departments, river basin agencies and Gansu Province. Invest heavily in implementing the ecological construction strategy of soil and water conservation, rationally utilize water resources, strengthen ecological construction, scientifically plan and determine the carrying capacity of land population, and realize the sustainable development of corridors. To this end, in the first half of 200 1 2000, the Gansu provincial government also made a decision not to open new wasteland in Hexi Corridor. At present, large-scale water-saving irrigation projects, sandstorm control projects and ecological environment construction projects aimed at restoring and protecting the environment are being fully rolled out in Hexi Corridor. We expect that in the near future, Hexi Corridor will be able to reproduce the historical glory.

Ningmeng Hetao "Emergency Water"

The Yellow River basin covers an area of nearly 800,000 square kilometers, most of which are arid areas, and water resources are inherently insufficient. According to statistics, the Yellow River has only 58 billion cubic meters of water resources. Moreover, due to too much sediment in the Yellow River, 65.438+0.6 billion tons of sediment need at least 20 billion cubic meters of water to be washed away every year, so the actual water available in the Yellow River is only 30 billion cubic meters every year. At the same time, it will also be used by nine provinces along the Yangtze River and two provinces and cities of Hebei and Tianjin. Due to the unreasonable utilization and waste of water resources, the shortage of water resources is becoming more and more serious.

As the saying goes, Ningxia in Huang Hefu and Hetao in Inner Mongolia are among them. For thousands of years, the Hetao irrigation area in Ningmeng has been irrigation by drainage and irrigation, which is convenient to get water. Farmers who live and farm here never worry about water shortage in farmland. However, with the ecological deterioration, population increase and rapid economic development in the upper reaches, the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources in Hetao irrigation area is increasingly apparent. Especially, Ningxia is located in the arid inland area of northwest China, where the precipitation in the sky is very scarce, the surface water is seriously insufficient, and the groundwater is even scarcer. The Yellow River transit water is the most important available water source in the whole region. In addition, in recent years, the amount of yellow river diversion from winter irrigation in Hetao irrigation area has dropped to the lowest level in recent ten years, and the water used for agricultural irrigation is seriously insufficient. Moreover, the persistent drought in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River has caused a rare dry situation in history, which has caused serious "water shortage" in Ningxia and Mongolia irrigation areas and caused huge losses to agriculture in irrigation areas. After many investigations by experts, there are four reasons for the "water shortage" in Hetao irrigation area in recent years:

First, the ecological degradation in the upper reaches of the Yellow River has intensified, leading to "water shortage" in irrigation areas. Due to the natural greenhouse effect, the serious ecological deterioration in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the unreasonable human activities, the irrigation area is dry and rainy, and the natural incoming water continues to decrease, so the water for production and living is "urgent". According to the measurement of relevant hydrometeorological departments, in recent years, the inflow of the main stream and tributaries of the upper reaches of the Yellow River has decreased by at most 50% compared with the multi-year average, resulting in no water to store in Longyangxia and Liujiaxia reservoirs in March and April, which has brought serious difficulties to the large amount of spring irrigation water in Ningmeng irrigation area in April and May.

Second, Ningmeng Hetao used more water than planned, which aggravated the "water shortage" in the irrigation area. Due to the continuous water shortage in the upper reaches of the Yellow River for many years, and the frequent use of Yellow River water in Ningmeng irrigation area, the "water shortage" has intensified. According to meteorological and hydrological data, the average annual precipitation in Ningmeng is 200-300mm, which is the province with the most shortage of surface water resources in China. In addition, the Yellow River is the main water resource for tourists in Ningxia and central and western Inner Mongolia. The practice since the Yellow River Commission implemented unified water dispatching for the main stream of the Yellow River has proved that at present, the current situation of Yellow River development and utilization does not allow Ningxia and Inner Mongolia to add new water consumption indicators for the main stream of the Yellow River.

Third, the water use structure in irrigation area is unreasonable, and the contradiction of "water shortage" is more prominent. According to the survey, the proportion of water used in Ningmeng irrigation area is seriously unbalanced because the renovation of irrigation area and the matching of canal system can't keep up, and the proportion of agricultural water used in total water consumption is as high as 90% ~ 96%. However, the water utilization coefficient of canal system is only about 0.4, and more than half of the water is wasted in the process of water conveyance. The average total water consumption per mu in irrigation area is as high as 1000 cubic meter, which is 2.4 times of the national average. Irrational agricultural water use structure and serious irrigation waste aggravate the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources. In addition, drought has reduced the effective supply of water resources, rapid economic development has increased the effective demand for water resources, the bearing pressure of water resources is too high, and the water use efficiency is not high, which has aggravated the tension of water resources shortage and become an important restrictive factor of "water resources shortage" in Ningmeng irrigation area.

Fourth, the rise of development and construction projects has intensified the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources. With the continuous development of economy and society in the Hetao area of Ningmeng, the area mainly relies on the advantages of natural resources to attract funds and develop and construct energy projects on a large scale. But most energy projects are high water consumption projects, such as wet and cold thermal power plants. A 300,000 kW unit needs about 4.5 million cubic meters of water every year. According to the calculation of large-scale industrial projects to be built in Inner Mongolia in the near future, the annual water consumption will increase by 220 million cubic meters, and the planned Ningdong Energy and Heavy Chemical Industry Base will need to increase industrial water consumption by 65.438+0.9 billion cubic meters by 2065.438+00, including 0.9 billion cubic meters for power plants. It can be seen that the energy development and construction projects with high water consumption further increase the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources in Ningmeng Hetao area.

Facing the severe shortage of water resources, the only way out is to build a water-saving society. In recent years, the Yellow River Commission, the Upper and Middle Yellow River Management Bureau and the water conservancy authorities in Ningmeng Province have solved the water shortage problem caused by water shortage through the reform pilot of "investing in water saving and transferring water rights" according to the new idea of sustainable development and water control of the party group of the Ministry of Water Resources and the basic requirements of effective allocation of water resources in accordance with the water rights theory, thus creating a brand-new road for building a water-saving society in China. At present, the reform of "water right transfer" is being further deepened and improved.

"Sand is a disaster" on the Loess Plateau

"The winding Yellow River is sandy in Wan Li, and the Yellow River is harmful to sediment". As the river with the largest sediment transport in the world, the annual sediment transport in the lower Yellow River reaches 654.38+0.6 billion tons. If piled into a mound with a width of 654.38+0 meters, it can circle the earth more than 27 times. 80% of these sediments come from the Loess Plateau in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The Loess Plateau with a total area of about 640,000 square kilometers is the largest loess-covered area in the world. Due to the arid climate, concentrated rainstorm, sparse vegetation, poor ability to resist soil erosion and long-term man-made damage, the Loess Plateau has become the most serious area of soil erosion in China. According to relevant data, the loess plateau has a soil erosion area of 450,000 square kilometers, accounting for 70.9% of the total area, which is the most serious soil erosion area in China and even the world. More than 1500 years ago, the middle reaches of the Yellow River used to be "near Guangze with clear water", and the dense forest sheep blocked the road. It was human predatory development that swept away vegetation and brought sandstorms, and it was soil erosion that painted the Loess Plateau into ruins.

The characteristics of the most serious soil erosion and the most fragile ecological environment in the Loess Plateau are as follows: First, soil erosion is widespread in the whole region. Second, the losses are serious, with more than 270,000 channels. Third, the loss is large (the sediment concentration of the Yellow River water has averaged 35 kilograms per cubic meter for many years, ranking first in the world). Fourth, the types of soil erosion are complex and difficult to control.

The hazards of soil erosion in the Loess Plateau are mainly manifested in:

-Sediment deposition in the downstream riverbed threatens the flood control safety of the Yellow River. Of the 65.438+0.6 billion tons of sediment imported into the Yellow River in this area for many years, about 400 million tons are deposited in the downstream riverbed, which causes the riverbed to rise by 8-654.38+00 cm every year. At present, the riverbed of the Yellow River is 4-6 meters higher than the ground on average, and the riverbed of the Yellow River in Kaifeng City, Henan Province is 13 meters higher than the urban area, forming a famous "hanging river on the ground", which directly threatens the life safety of people on both sides of the downstream.

-Affecting the effective utilization of water resources. The water resources in this area are relatively scarce, and the total water resources only account for 1/8 of the whole country. The annual rainfall is only 200-700 mm, but the evaporation is as high as 300- 1800 mm. At the same time, in order to reduce the loss of storage capacity caused by sediment deposition, 20-30 billion cubic meters of water is needed to wash the sediment into the sea every year, reducing the riverbed and making the limited water resources more tense.

-restricting economic and social development. Serious soil erosion reduces cultivated land, leads to the decline of soil fertility and low and unstable grain output. In order to survive, people have to reclaim land and fall into a vicious circle of "getting poorer and poorer", which seriously restricts the social and economic development. Among the 592 poverty-stricken counties and 80 million poor people in the eighth seven-year plan, there are 126 poverty-stricken counties and 23 million poor people in the whole region. After years of poverty alleviation, there are still100000 people who are not out of poverty.

-It has worsened the ecological environment. Soil erosion destroys the original vegetation, worsens the ecological environment, and intensifies natural disasters such as land drought and microclimate. According to the data of 18 county in Gansu province for 44 consecutive years, the drought year or drought year is 17, accounting for 38.6%, and other disaster years are 19, accounting for 43.2%. Serious soil erosion, resulting in a wide range of surface exposure, forming a desert, once the wind, dust flying, forming a sandstorm. Historically, due to the destruction of surface vegetation and the formation of desert, Yulin City in northern Shaanxi was forced to move three times. Not far from the upper reaches of Hukou District of the Yellow River, it was a big and prosperous wharf decades ago. The current rivers have long been unable to sail because of too little water and too much sediment, and the prosperity of the docks in the past only stayed in the memory of the previous generation. In addition, in recent years, there has been too little precipitation on both sides of the strait, and the villagers nearby have not even harvested, making life more and more difficult. No way, the surrounding villagers have to move away and find land for reclamation where there is water to survive.

In recent years, the serious soil erosion in the Loess Plateau has attracted great attention of the Party and the country. Three generations of leaders of the Party have made important instructions and instructions on soil erosion control in the Loess Plateau. The Central Committee also clearly pointed out: "Strengthening closing hillsides to facilitate afforestation and comprehensive management of small watersheds, adopting various engineering measures such as' warping dams' and doing a good job in soil and water conservation are important measures to consolidate the achievements of returning farmland to forests, promote farmers to become rich and reduce sediment entering the Yellow River." The Ministry of Water Resources approved the construction scheme of warping dam for soil and water conservation on the Loess Plateau, increased investment, and put it into one of the three "bright spot projects" of national water conservancy work for full implementation, which aroused widespread concern from all walks of life. At present, the Party Committee of the Yellow River Committee has put forward a strategic plan to build a "three lines of defense" for coarse sediment in the Yellow River. Taking the construction of warping dams as a breakthrough and as the first line of defense to reduce the inflow of coarse sediment from the Yellow River, the treatment of coarse sediment in the Loess Plateau has been put on the agenda, which has been highly valued and strongly supported by the provinces (autonomous regions) and the competent departments of soil and water conservation in the basin. This action will certainly provide an important supporting role for the ecological construction of the Loess Plateau.

"water pollution" when the river flows out of Longmen

Due to the deteriorating ecology of the Yellow River and the decreasing water resources, many key tributaries along the Yellow River have been seriously polluted by dilution of industrial wastewater due to lack of water. The most polluted reach of the Yellow River is from Ningxia to Inner Mongolia, and from Tongguan, Shaanxi to Sanmenxia, Henan. The main reason is that some polluting enterprises have exceeded the standard. To this end, the Yellow River Commission has adjusted the operation mode of Xiaolangdi Reservoir to intercept and store floods, which is the first time among major rivers in China, and has provided more than 8 billion cubic meters of valuable water for the prevention of cutoff and pollution control in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. However, due to the continuous injection of inferior five waters, every winter and spring, a "Qingshui" reservoir in Xiaolangdi began to deteriorate, and the water diversion from the Yellow River to Tianjin was forced to stop twice.

Especially in the Xiaobei main stream area of the Yellow River at the junction of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan, due to serious pollution in recent years, 40%-70% of the water bodies in the basin have fallen to the worst level of national standards. The pollution sources are mainly industrial wastewater and domestic sewage along the Yellow River. The Linfen section of the Yellow River is 173.5 km long, and there are 956 enterprises along the line, including 77 paper mills, 402 coking coal washing plants and 243 mineral processing plants ... They discharge 6 1 10,000 tons of industrial wastewater into the Fenhe River every year. In addition, coastal cities discharge 30 million tons of domestic sewage every year. People on both sides of the strait haven't heard the clatter of Fenhe River for 10 years. The Fenhe River, which is called "Mother River" by Shanxi people, not only produces milk, but also hides evil for future generations. Due to the increasing burden, it has been unable to feed its children, and some river sections have even lost the function of agricultural irrigation.

As the largest tributary of the Yellow River, Weihe River flows through 23 counties (cities) in Gansu and Shaanxi, and joins the Yellow River in Tongguan County, Shaanxi Province. In recent years, 1 1 paper mill in Weinan City, Shaanxi Province has discharged 5.35 million tons of sewage into Weihe River every year. Urban domestic sewage and other industrial wastewater are directly discharged into the Weihe River, which makes the Weihe River bed black in the dry season. No city along the Yangtze River has a domestic sewage treatment plant, except Xi 'an, with a daily treatment capacity of 270,000 tons. In 1970s, the lower reaches of Weihe River were rich in aquatic plants, and many farmers took fishing as their profession. But now there is only one kind of fish commonly known as "clam fish" left in the Weihe River, which has a strong kerosene smell and cannot be eaten. How can such a situation not be worrying?

According to relevant media reports, since the end of the 1990s, the water discharged from Sanmenxia Reservoir will turn into "soy sauce color" every winter and spring, and white foam appears from time to time on the water surface, with a very unpleasant smell.

The increasingly serious water pollution of the Yellow River not only destroys the ecosystem of the Yellow River, but also makes the aquatic life near13 disappear. According to experts from the Yellow River Water Resources Protection Research Institute, many tributaries of the Yellow River jumped into the river in the 1950s and 1960s. Now the whole river is polluted, stinking, and fish and shrimp are extinct. Carp in Luohe and bream in yi river have been called "Carp in Luohe is as expensive as cattle and sheep" since ancient times. Unfortunately, due to water pollution, these two precious fish have become extinct. Due to the large amount of sewage discharged from the middle reaches of the Yellow River, it directly affects the water safety of large and medium-sized cities such as Zhengzhou.

Fortunately, in recent years, the national environmental protection department and river basin environmental protection agencies have paid special attention to the prevention and control of water pollution in the Yellow River. Take effective measures to increase dispatching, urge relevant water conservancy departments to limit the amount of water diverted from the Yellow River, and ask relevant departments to increase the discharge of Sanmenxia and Xiaolangdi reservoirs; All papermaking, tanning, brewing, food and pharmaceutical enterprises that produce pollution and backward facilities will stop production and discharge; Restrict the production of key polluting enterprises and key pollution sources; Limit production or water consumption for large water users, reduce industrial and agricultural water consumption, and take measures to stop, guide and intercept pollution to reduce the amount of sewage entering the Yellow River; Doing a good job of emergency plan for water source backup and preventing major water supply pollution accidents have played a good regulatory role in ensuring that the water quality of the Yellow River is not polluted.

"Easy Cut-off" in the Lower Yellow River

Under the influence of human activities, especially in the past 20 years, the downstream water cut-off has occurred frequently, which not only aggravated the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources, but also brought a series of impacts on the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin. According to Records of the Yellow River, the Yellow River was cut off for the first time in 1972 17 days. During the period of191-1995, the average annual water cut is 8 1 day, and the length of the cut-off section is120km. 1996 Interception 128 days, with interception length of 620 kilometers; 1997 Interception 13 times ***226 days, and the length of the intercepted reach is 683 kilometers. Especially in recent years, the Yellow River has been cut off, and it may become a seasonal inland river. Downstream cutoff is caused by the following reasons:

First, the ecological environment of the Yellow River is fragile and water resources are very scarce. The Yellow River is located in semi-arid and semi-humid areas, with little rainfall and fragile ecology. The average runoff for many years is only 1/20 of that of the Yangtze River, ranking fourth among the seven major rivers in China, smaller than that of the Yangtze River, Pearl River and Songhua River. In addition, the runoff of the Yellow River changes greatly in a year. In the dry season, there is basically no rain in the Yellow River basin, the tributaries are short of water, and the main stream is also very small, so it is easy to be cut off naturally.

Second, with the continuous economic and social development of the Yellow River Basin, the demand for water resources in the Yellow River is increasing, and the contradiction between supply and demand is very prominent. According to the statistics in the early 1990s, the amount of water diverted from the Yellow River in the provinces along the Yellow River has reached 27 billion cubic meters, accounting for more than 70% of the total water resources of the Yellow River. The Yellow River is almost hollowed out, how can it continue to flow?

Third, water is wasted, and the utilization rate of water resources is very low. Due to the low water price and people's weak awareness of water saving, there is a serious waste of water resources in industrial and agricultural production in the Yellow River Basin. In addition, there are more than 120 water transfer projects in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the water transfer capacity far exceeds the possible water supply capacity of the Yellow River. In order to reduce the impact of not using water during the water cut-off period, "spring drought and winter storage" makes water shortage during the non-irrigation period. This is the main reason why the deadline is advanced and the frequency is increased.

Where the downstream is cut off, the sail shadow of the Yellow River becomes a boat without water. 1997, the riverbed became a pasture after more than 200 days of interruption. In Dongming, cars come and go on the dry river bed, and the Dongming Yellow River Bridge flying in the air is very embarrassing. The cut-off has seriously affected the life of urban residents in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Dongying, Binzhou, Puyang and other cities provide regular water supply to residents, and every household stores water for standby, filled with pots and pans. On both sides of the Yellow River, the seedlings withered and scorched, and the flow was cut off for a long time, and the grain was not harvested. Many people who have been boating at the ferry for generations have no work to do, so they have to make a living. Power failure caused great losses to industrial and agricultural production. Zhongyuan Chemical Fertilizer Plant, with an annual output of 300,000 tons of urea synthetic amine, had to stop production due to the interruption of the Yellow River. In a word, the economic loss, ecological damage and environmental pollution caused by water stoppage along the Yellow River are very serious.

The cut-off of the Yellow River not only brings serious losses to the development of industry and agriculture along the Yellow River and people's health, but also leads to the shrinkage of the Yellow River channel, the sharp decrease of sediment entering the sea, the erosion of the coastline, the changes in the offshore biological resources and biological population structure, and the gradual extinction of many rare animals and plants.

To this end, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission, with the strong support and cooperation of provincial (district) governments and water administrative departments, has taken many effective measures to strengthen the development and protection of the Yellow River and achieved remarkable results.

For the ecological security of the Yellow River and the prosperity and well-being of the people along the Yellow River, in recent years, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission has clearly put forward the great idea of building "three Yellow Rivers" with all its strength under the guidance of the scientific theoretical framework of 1493, earnestly practicing the new concept of river management and being a good spokesman for the Yellow River. Through the implementation of ecological restoration in the source area of the Yellow River, ecological construction in sand-blown areas, water intake system reform in Hetao irrigation area, silt dam construction on the Loess Plateau and comprehensive management, the "coarse sediment" flowing into the Yellow River will be gradually reduced and the first line of defense will be constructed. Actively carry out the sediment discharge test of the small north trunk of the Yellow River to achieve "coarse silt and fine sand" and build a second line of defense; Regularly carry out water and sediment regulation experiments of Xiaolangdi Reservoir, make full use of the reservoir capacity to stop coarse and discharge fine, and build a strategic measure of the third line of defense to "maintain the healthy life of the Yellow River". We have reason to believe that in the near future, the ecology of the Yellow River will change and the future of the Yellow River will be better.