SAN-HO-CHA, THE BIGGEST SLUICE GATE ON THE HUAI RIVER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700150238-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 238
• Publication Date: November 30, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/14: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700150238-0
STAT
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P.L_A._PICTORIAL NO. 27 _ J2TE. 1953. (Page 10)
SApT_TIO_C~~_T E BI EST SLSIC (ATE Oil TF:E HUAI RIVER
Work has already begun on the HUAI Control enb=neerin
programme for 1953, and a million civilian labout'ers from Honer..
A:Thwci and hiangsu have reac_.ed the scene of action. One of
t'h.o io~portant pieces of work is the SAN-:O-CIiA which m'st be
finis'_-led by the end of. June this year, before the ., rl.ooc'.
One of the main river systems in China,
River rises in the T'UII!.'-PE- !Its. of Honan and flov;:~
Yangtze and the Eastern Sea after traversing eastern 1 n.n e_i:.
the northern parrs C:' Anhwei and Kiangsu. The full 1ec:,;th o:
the main stream is 1087 Kr. and the approximate area of the
drainage hat;_n is 220,000 sq. Km.
Up to 700 years ago this was a very fertile area;
t'.::. towas?:' , the c lose of 12th century (in 1194 A.D.) the
E:';e^cr KU:_ TSUNG rf the Northern Sung Dynasty breached `hr
Yelicn River banks in an effort to hinder the Tartar sole'
and the HUAI River channel w as stolen by the Yellow Riv;,,
It is since this time that disasters have come to the Hurt. drain-
age .area. `!hen the Japanese made their attack en Honan in 1938,
Chiang's bandits in their efforts to escape again breached the
dikes at HUl'-YUAN-K'OU on the south of the river, and the waters
entered. the HUAI River s;stam, but created at the same time an
artificially flooded area that brought about the death by
drowning of more ~lhan ha:.f a million people and the submergence
of 3-1 million 1.07 of good paddy fields, making 12 million
peo-,. 'iomelesa. This ii the cause of the present serious
con,; .Dns that are found through-the Huai R. basin (wide floods
after heavy rains, smaller floods after light rains, and drought
if there is no rain).
For the basic control of the Huai R. and its utili-
sation for the welfare of the people, our great leader Chairman
Lao issued the call in 1950 to make as a fixed objective the
thorough repair of the Huai, and on Oct. 6th of that year the
Huai Control Commission was sot up to go on with the work under
the direction of the Ministry of Water Conservancy according to
the decisions promulgated by the Government Administrative
Council.
It was estimated that five years would be needed to
finish this great piece of constructive conservancy engineering
but that after it was completed the increase in annual production
of grain alone could exceed 2600 million CHIN, apart from the
advantages to be gained by water transport and hydro-electric
schemes.
SAN-HO-CFA is situated in the S.W. corner of HUAI-YIN
county in northern Kiant,su at the junction of SAN-HO and the
HUNG-TSE Lake. This lake's history dates frcm the time in 1194
when the Yellow R. waters were diverted into the Huai, bringing
about the silting; up of the outlet channel of the latter to the
se;a in N. Kianesu; this caused an accumulation of flood waters
(from hundreds of small streams along the upper and central
roaches of the Huci) along the Kiangsu - Anhwei border, where a
few small lakes nr.d marshes already existing gradually extended
in area, form1.ng the present lake, There is much shallow water
in it, and every time the flocd waters from tho Huai R. exceed
its capacity to hold the:,, the dikes are over-topped or burst
and the N. Kiangsu plain i.s subrorged. The reactionary feudal
Emperors of the ?iING arc CH ITIG lynasties found no method of
controlling these flood dieoctor:except the negative ono of
buildi??$ a dike all round the 1Ek; end making the flood waters
flow south throu h SATT-FO and after passing successively through
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the PAO-yi:G, KAO-yU and SF:AO-PE Lakes and the Grand Canal,
ultimate]y to enter the Yangtze River. From hydrographic
records that have been kept over a series of years, the maximum
flow into the HUNG-TSE Lake from the Huai R, is 14,600 cubic
t etres Per second, while the water channel into the Yangtze will
m
only 8,000 cub. metres/see. Consequently the farmlands
of more than ten count tes in the lower river district of 11,
Kiengsu have been inundated every time there have be"r r1?D.d
waters in relatively large quantity. Yet in dry
the upper reaches of the HUAI River lacked water, t `.:. ; ;,?;
the HUNG-TSE Lake still flowed away through SAN-H0 .o;'..:.
e45
mptied itself and nothing was left for irrlgatin,~ The f~oil~s
of the N. K v:ngsu dis'":ict, the low water also stopping 're
traffic along the Grerd Canal,
"?i::??HO_0HA is a regulating weir by which the water
level of HU';3.?TS make and the flow of water through SAN-HO
wi:7 be cor,r3lled. The engineering for its construction was
bc,."-1. in Oc. , 1552., and the scale of work exceeds that of fie
JU;' HC -CIiI o versionery weir in the Middle Huai region,
we=:? is based on the east bank of SAN-Ho; its length is i
o
nly to that of the flood intake weir connected with the
C
theNwhole oodwordiversion
of There
the weir,o 697.75 parts
metres long,
132 metres brood, 9.5 metres high. The whole of the base of
this is of poured reinforced concrete. There are 63 sections
with a sluice ate in each operated by electric motors,and one
man at the switc'' oard can open or close them. all. Across the
top of the weir t :?.;re ;ill be a highway bridge (and an upera-
tione' bridge for nanip,ileting the sluice gates) to facilitate
the t:. transport (of the area). Besides this, the mouth of
the Si -?3O is to bo closed by building a straw dam (T.N, using
bundles of reeds, perhaps) seven Chinese li long across it; a
river-blocking dam over 300 metres long is to be built; and a
water channel excavated for which more then four million cubic
metres of earth will have to to moved.
As early as August, 1952, the Huai Control Comiission
went all out to gat all preparations ri:do for the building of
SALT-HO-CHA, to ensure, its completion within the time set, There
were fully 300,000 tons of th, needed materials (cement, yellow
send, stones and machinery), enough to load 10,000 wagons had
they to be transported by train.
Regarding thaso engaged in the building, some have
had experience in the CHINO CHIANG and the JUN-HO-CHI projects,
and over 50,000 cpivilian labourers come from KA0-YU, HUAI-YIN,
CHIANG-TU and SA-YANG; in addition there are U.S.S.R water
conservancy experts and many soldiers of the PLA - those once
liberated the people of this region, and are now building up
prosperity and happiness for them. When these soldiers reached
the site they all felt strange; many of the articles they had
never seen before nor even heard of, but after three months of
studious effort most of them had a grasp of the technique, and
some forged ahead of the general run of skilled workmen. Every-
Wewhearerecan be
toabuilda reservoir; ihwhen h the ~ Huai R. is scofinished
ntrolled
we shall control the Yellow River."
of the N. Kli'lhen
complutod the
guaranteed even
at times of unusual floods by the drawing off of the flood
waters: at other times the: volr?.me of water in HUNG-TSE Lake
will be maintained so than, vili be a large amount flowing
into the N. Kiengsu main i.::'i~ ?r,i 0 ehen c,l through the KAO-
LIANG-JUN inlet gate for i;hc : ring of :5,800,0,)O HOU of
N. Kiengsu farmlands. The wojer !oval aionp the middle and
lower Huai R. and in the ;.T. Kiengsu irrigation channel will be
kept constant, .Waking these waterways permanently suitable for
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use by shipping which can come in from the Eastern and Yellow
Sees and proceec cirectly to the TA-PIER-SHAN district on the
middle Huai R,, and to VIII-LUNG-CHI which lies within Honan
province. In this way an uninterrupted interchange will be
possible between the cotton of the reclaimed areas of N. Kiangsu
the rice and wheat of the lower river district, the table salt
from salt-yards of the northern HUAI, the coal, been, sorghum
of N. Anhwei, and the taa, bamboos and drugs of the TA-?IETr-SHArT
district, on the one hand, and the industrial products r?
yarn and cloth of 6henghai, %7.sih and other large cite. ;. ~
other. The goods produced by the people of Kiangsu, a+,i
Anhwei will be guaranteed resulting in irproveraent in
materiel livelihood, while industrial and faring produ:;,.;ior, will
show rapid development, dith the HUNG-TSE Leke under control,
hydro-oleetrieity ?iill he available by utilising the water
floleng thou `h7the SAN-HO-CHA. After the completion of the
rear old _'AO-YING and KAU-YU Lakes can be
gradually dri:d out, making a further 1.5 million L U of fertile
lend availabl,, for the pro..uction of grain.
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