The following is the welcoming statement delivered by NACA President G. Leung at the Yellow River Symposium, April 22, 1995
Welcome to the Yellow River Symposium
All my life I cherish a lingering hope that one day Yellow River would cease to exert heavy tolls on the Chinese people as it did throughout historic times. I think many still would not believe that Yellow River can ever be altered from its muddy state to flow clear, but on closer examination I find that it can be done, and the resource to do so is well within our grasp!
Last summer I visited the Yellow River Conservancy Commission at Zhengzhou and its Middle Yellow River Improvement Bureau at Xi'an proposing a massive erosion-control program over the loess highland of the middle Yellow River basin in mainly Shaanxi and Shanxi by blocking gullies with small earth dams to prevent eroded soil from reaching the rivers. This will redue sediment in the main channel downstream, but more importantly the reservoirs will retain water fa a dry region making possible irrigation and economic development. I was glad to discover that this proposal was in agreement with the adopted plan for land reclamation in the area. My vision is to scale up the existing program by many folds, as the benefit is enormous which easily compensates its cost.
Precipitation in the area comes largely in localized heavy downpours concentrating in July, August and September, washing out top soils, carving out gullies, and posing flood threats to the downstream levee-protected areas. Once the rain season is over, the region remains dry making it unfavorable for agriculture, condemning a vast region to perennial poverty. With impounded water created by damming, scattered "oases" over a dry land are created providing the needed water resource to produce higher-priced crops with its already fertile soil.
With such water resource together with improved highway and electric facilities the region will able to attract outside investments to stimulate growth. Witness the rapid economic boom coming to the coastal regions, which is due largely to outside investments, and so can the yellow-earth heartland. At the present time, land is being leased for 50- to 70-year user rights. As long as the developed site worths more than its cost, the transformation of the region will take off, and the key is to aim for such a critical point in economic return. Properly promoted, hopefully within 20 years, erosion control will reduce the sediment content in Yellow River to a tolerable level. In less than that time, the river channel in its lower reaches will cease to rise with time, eliminating forever the threat of flood over a vast densely-populated land.
I am fully convinced that once the cost effectiveness of erosion control for the middle Yellow River basin is demonstrated, the government will step in, and Yellow River will indeed be rendered clear within the foreseeable future. To do so, sone must show that water is the source of prosperity for the region, whose poverty is caused by its lacking.
I hope that you will join me in this challenging venture by publicizing the issues and arousing people's concern for the status of the river. It is totally possible that Yellow River will flow clear within our lifetimes. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Sincerely yours,
George Leung