CGTN said that the Aratax hydropower dam in the Tan Cuong Uy Uy Autonomous Area, known as the "Tram Hiep Tan Cuong", has resolved flooding for more than 2.4 million people. The construction of the project is considered a world-class challenge.
Xinjiang's largest irrigation project is located on the Yarkand River, a beautiful river that has been struggling during catastrophic floods.
The Yarkand River, which originates in the Karakoram range, has the highest flood frequency and is the heaviest flood control burden in Xinjiang.
Mr. Guo Rongfu - Party Secretary and General Director of Xinhua Power Xinjiang Yehe Industrial Park Company - said that previously, more than 90% of rural laborers in the river basin participated in flood prevention efforts, with investments amounting to billions of yuan.
Flood prevention is an urgent need but not simple. The Aratax hydropower project cost about 11 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) and took more than 10 years to complete. Many have described the project as a world-class challenge.
Mr. Guo Rongfu said that the construction project faces extremely difficult technical challenges called "three peaks and one abyss" - including high earthquake intensity, high slopes, high dams and deep rocks and soil.
Mr. Guo recalled that in the early stages of construction, traffic mainly depended on walking and communication, mainly by shouting loudly. Fortunately, thanks to advances in advanced technologies such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, the burden of management has shifted from humans to technology.
Three-way accelerators track the deformation, subsidence and movement of the dam in real time throughout the operation process, helping to continuously check. "We aim to reduce staff and operate without supervisors," said Mr. Guo.
Currently, flood control standards in the downstream of the Yarkand River have been raised from 2.5 years to 50 years, reducing the need for human intervention in annual flood control efforts by about 10 million times. Muhaimaiti Apizin - a resident of Yehe district, Xinjiang - said that after the project was launched, it has brought many job opportunities, from bricklayers, electricians, chefs, drivers... and almost every household has people working at the construction site. Muhaimaiti even borrowed money to buy an excavator for 600,000 yuan (2 billion VND) and paid off all the debt within just three years of working there.
When Aratax Dam comes into operation, the once dangerous Yarkand River has been laicized, opening a new path to prosperity for more than 2.4 million Chinese people.
