Jiangwan Reservoir

Jiangwan Reservoir

The medium-sized Jiangwan Reservoir is located on the Xiaoliuhe River, a tributary of the Shaoling River, in Shantou Village, Zengshou Village, Waxing Town. Construction began in 1958 and took 22 years to complete intermittently, resulting in the reservoir’s main infrastructure. It controls a catchment area of 120 square kilometers and has a total storage capacity of 27.6 million cubic meters. The homogeneous clay dam is 1,640 meters long, with the highest section reaching 12.5 meters. The upstream slope is protected with stone blocks, while the downstream slope features the eight white characters “Yu Gong Yi Shan, Gai Zao Zhong Guo” (The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains, Transforming China), each forming a 10-meter square. The dam crest is 5 meters wide, paved with sand and gravel, and equipped with streetlights every 80 meters.

The water outlet tunnel is located at the left end of the dam. It is a single-chamber square tunnel, 40 meters long with a height and width of 1.8 meters each. It is fitted with two steel gates and features a wooden, double-layered, pavilion-style control house. The maximum discharge capacity is 20 cubic meters per second. The outlet includes a flood discharge gate and two distribution gates, connecting to two main irrigation canals that lead to the farmland areas. The spillway is situated at the right end of the dam. It is 120 meters long and 29 meters wide in total, equipped with four electrically operated radial steel gates, along with a traffic bridge, maintenance bridge, and control house. Its maximum spillway discharge capacity is 420 cubic meters per second. A guardhouse is also built at the right end of the dam, while the reservoir management station is located on the left side. This station includes a two-story office building, warehouse, garage, and eight family residences. The total amount of work completed for the reservoir project was 966,900 cubic meters, including 87,600 cubic meters of stonework and 11,400 cubic meters of concrete. The construction utilized 31.8935 million units of machinery and animal-drawn carts (132,424 units), with a total national investment of 6.18 million yuan. The reservoir was designed to withstand a 50-year flood event and verified against a 1,000-year event. Its primary purposes are flood control, irrigation, and fish farming. Its benefits include controlling most mountain floods from Laoheishan, regulating the flow of the Shaoling River; protecting five natural villages and 20,000 mu of farmland in the eastern parts of Waxing and Zhendong townships; safeguarding 3,000 meters of forest railways and highways; directly irrigating 30,000 mu of farmland, including 10,000 mu of paddy fields; providing a reservoir surface area of 6,000 mu with an average depth of 6 meters and clear water quality, suitable for aquaculture development. A total of 800,000 fish fry have been released, and 40 fish breeding ponds covering 80 mu (including 10 mu of overwintering ponds) have been constructed downstream of the dam.

When the reservoir broke ground, initial work included constructing a 4-meter-high, 1,200-meter-long earth dam and a culvert water outlet tunnel. In 1963, the dam was breached to release water and ensure safety. In 1968, a simple spillway was built. After the earth dam was closed, water storage was limited and no significant benefits were achieved. In 1974, the main reservoir project was listed as a provincial infrastructure project. The following April, a reservoir construction command was established. Following a militia structure, 6,400 laborers from 26 communes, along with 5,221 motor vehicles and horse-drawn carts (including six bulldozers), were mobilized. The project was completed according to design in 1980. Over the next three years after 1982, supporting irrigation works were completed, mainly including the construction of three structures—three flood discharge gates, drainage (inlet) gates, and aqueducts—as well as the drilling of four recharge wells. In 1985, 13,000 mu of paddy fields were irrigated, producing 2,000 jin of adult fish. When the reservoir was first built, there was a village called Jiangwan upstream in the reservoir area, hence the name Jiangwan Reservoir. During the “Cultural Revolution,” it was renamed Wensheng Reservoir, but reverted to its original name in 1980.

Address: Bayan County, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province