Land reclamation and consolidation should be advanced in step with winter water conservancy construction
The annual winter water conservancy construction will kick off in various places. Years of practical work have taught us: the topsoil and surplus soil from winter water conservancy construction are valuable soil sources that can be fully utilized for land reclamation and consolidation, and are also an important source of soil needed for land reclamation and consolidation. The topsoil stripped from newly excavated water conservancy projects can be directly transplanted to reclaimed and consolidated field plots as the cultivated layer; the silt and surplus soil from dredging or widening water conservancy projects can be used to fill in the ditches, ponds and low-lying areas in reclaimed and consolidated field plots; closely combining winter water conservancy construction with land reclamation and consolidation work can be described as "a match made in heaven and earth." But in previous years the author found that in many places winter water conservancy construction and land reclamation and consolidation each went their own way, each forming its own "camp," with no sign of coordination. The topsoil in water conservancy construction project areas was not stripped, and the remaining soil was either hauled around chaotically by dump trucks to make money, or dragged off in bits and pieces by residents, leaving mud everywhere. This is a regrettable matter.
That land reclamation and consolidation can utilize the topsoil, surplus soil and silt from winter water conservancy construction is a good thing that comes once a year or even once every few years. In view of this, the relevant functional departments, especially the land, agriculture and water conservancy departments, should grasp the opportunity, cooperate fully, and do this good thing well.
From the actual situation and experience from other places, to truly do this work well, first the county and township (town) governments need to issue mandatory regulations. Before winter water conservancy construction begins, county and township (town) governments should consider issuing regulations that all topsoil and surplus soil from water conservancy construction be used for land reclamation and consolidation projects, strictly requiring from the height of maintaining the dynamic balance of the total cultivated land in the region, safeguarding food production security, and ensuring that high-standard basic farmland and high-standard farmland are built on schedule and in full quantity, that no unit or individual may arbitrarily haul away the topsoil and surplus soil of any water conservancy project within the county and township (town), thereby ensuring that the topsoil and surplus soil of water conservancy projects are all transferred to land reclamation and consolidation field plots.
Second, the relevant departments need to cooperate closely to guarantee quality and quantity. In actual work, the land, agriculture and water conservancy departments should each perform their own duties and bear their own responsibilities, while also cooperating closely, actively connecting, reporting their respective progress schedules at any time, formulating and adjusting work plans, promptly matching available soil source quality and earthwork volume to land reclamation and consolidation field plots, arranging hauling, and transferring quickly; at the same time, each should draw technical backbones to the front line to measure earthwork on site, direct transplantation, and carefully guide land reclamation and consolidation and high-standard basic farmland and high-standard farmland construction projects and their supporting works such as roads, ditches, canals, bridges and culverts.
Third, the construction units need to truly do the work well. On the one hand, land reclamation and consolidation construction units are required to actively follow up according to available soil source conditions, cooperate actively, and transport earthwork entirely according to the water conservancy construction unit's soil extraction plan; on the other hand, construction units should be educated and guided to consider more from the perspective of benefiting the people and giving back to society, and to adopt the "one-step in place" soil extraction method as much as possible, that is, directly extracting and transplanting the topsoil, silt and the earthwork expected to be clearly surplus within the water conservancy project area to the land reclamation and consolidation field plots. In this way, organically combining land reclamation and consolidation with winter water conservancy construction reduces an intermediate link of secondary soil extraction and can save the other party a very considerable project cost. Such a method of achieving two goals at once can enable winter water conservancy construction and land reclamation and consolidation work to achieve a "win-win."