What are the challenges facing the irrigation industry at this stage?

Although my country's irrigation and drainage industry has made great achievements, it is also facing serious challenges. The shortage of water resources has become the main constraint factor for the sustainable development of China's society and economy. In 2002, the country's total water consumption was 549.7 billion cubic meters, accounting for 19.5% of the total water resources of the year, of which urban domestic water accounted for 5.8%, rural domestic water accounted for 5.4%, industrial water accounted for 20.8%, and farmland irrigation water accounted for 61.4% %, water for forestry, animal husbandry and fishery accounted for 6.65%.

 

Although the total water supply will increase in the future, with the development of industry and urbanization and the improvement of people's living standards, more and more water will be used to meet the needs of industry and residents' lives, and irrigation water will be more tense. The water shortage for irrigation reaches more than 30 billion cubic meters per year, but the waste of agricultural water is serious, and the national irrigation water utilization rate is only about 40%.

In the 1970s, the average annual drought-affected area of farmland across the country was about 11 million hectares, and in the 1980s and 1990s it reached an average of about 20 million hectares and 27 million hectares per year, respectively. In addition, my country's water pollution has not been effectively controlled. According to the results of water quality evaluation in 2002, among the 123,000 kilometers of rivers surveyed and evaluated, 12.2% of them were rivers with Grade IV water, and 23.1% were rivers with Grade V or worse than Grade V water.

There are nearly 33 million hectares of farmland affected by subsidence, salinity, and waterlogging nationwide. After more than 40 years of ditching, drainage and comprehensive treatment, most of these low-yield farmlands have been improved to varying degrees. However, with the improvement of agricultural development requirements for governance standards, and the damage to the natural environment due to human activities in some areas, the task of further governance is still very large.