On May 10, 2024, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kangzhuo Reservoir in Gyantse County, Tibet was grandly held in Gyantse County, Shigatse City, marking an important step in the county's water conservancy construction and agriculture and animal husbandry development.

The Kangzhuo Reservoir Project is located in Kangzhuo Township, Gyantse County, Shigatse City, 20 kilometers away from the county seat. It is one of the important projects in the water conservancy reform and development of the Tibet Autonomous Region. This project has not only been included in the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Water Conservancy Reform and Development of the Tibet Autonomous Region", but has also been carried forward to the "14th Five-Year Plan" for water security, demonstrating its importance to regional water resources security and economic development.

It is reported that the main task of the Kangzhuo Reservoir Project is to provide irrigation services, involving an irrigation area of 46,500 acres. The total storage capacity of the reservoir is 10.94 million cubic meters. The dam adopts an asphalt concrete core wall pebble mixed earth dam design. The maximum dam height is 38.5 meters and the crest length is 1,238 meters. The entire project is expected to have a total construction period of 31 months, with a total investment of 748.92 million yuan.

Pubu Ouzhu, director of the Shigatse Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau, said that the three valley areas of Kangzhuopu, Renjilinpu and Yawutang downstream of the Kangzhuo Reservoir have flat terrain and concentrated land, which has great potential for comprehensive development of agriculture and animal husbandry. The total land area of these three river valleys reaches 90,700 acres, but currently only a small amount of cultivated land and pasture has been developed, and the rest are wasteland. The completion of the Kangzhuo Reservoir will greatly improve this situation, not only ensuring the existing irrigation area of 9,800 acres is irrigated, but also adding an additional 36,700 acres of irrigation area.

Director Pubu Oju also pointed out that the irrigation area downstream of the Kangzhuo Reservoir currently mainly relies on machine-driven wells and other methods for irrigation, which is costly and cannot meet the irrigation needs of the newly developed area. After the reservoir is completed, it will effectively ensure water supply in the irrigation area and significantly increase agricultural and animal husbandry income. At the same time, the reservoir can also regulate runoff distribution to a certain extent, stabilize the ecological base flow of the river, improve the ecological environment of the river, improve the irrigation guarantee rate of downstream irrigation areas, and effectively alleviate the water shortage problems of spring drought and winter drought in the irrigated area.

The construction of the Kangzhuo Reservoir is of great significance to promoting the development of agriculture and animal husbandry and ecological protection in Tibet, and will provide solid water conservancy support for the sustainable development of the local economy and society.Editor/Cheng Liting