After five years, the Jiangtang Lake Flood Storage Area, which made great contributions to resisting the 2020 Huai River Basin wide floods, has once again undergone a profound transformation that will affect the safety of the next few decades.

On December 11, 2025, in Yingshang County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, the construction of the Jiangtang Lake flood control area embankment reinforcement project officially began. This major water conservancy project with a total investment of 493 million yuan is a key project in the national and Anhui Province's 14th Five Year Plan to address weak links in flood control and drainage.

Behind the project is a 119.2 square kilometer flood discharge area in the middle reaches of the Huai River, with a giant water bag with a storage capacity of 760 million cubic meters. Over the past 70 years, this land has been used 22 times to divert floodwaters from the Huai River.

The current situation and hidden concerns of the Huai River water bowl

The Jiangtang Lake Flood Storage Area is located at the confluence of the main stream of the Huai River, the Ying River, and the Pi River, between the Zhengyangguan and Linhuaigang Flood Control Projects. It is a crucial part of the flood control system in the middle reaches of the Huai River. In 2004, the two low standard flood discharge areas of Jiangjia Lake and Tangduo Lake were combined and rebuilt into a high standard flood storage area, thus changing the passive way of blasting embankments for flood discharge in the past. This improvement makes it an important component of the flood control and scheduling of the Linhuai Gang flood control project.

In recent years, the Jiangtang Lake flood storage area has played a huge role in flood prevention and control. Taking the large-scale flood in the Huaihe River Basin in 2020 as an example, the timely opening of the Jiangtang Lake flood storage area effectively curbed the rapid rise of water level in the upstream Zhengyangguan and significantly reduced the flood control pressure in the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River. However, the frequent use and natural aging have put its existing embankments and supporting facilities to the test. At present, the Jiangtang Lake flood discharge area is facing the problem of low drainage standards, which directly affects the establishment of an effective safety production and flood control evacuation guarantee system in the area.

Investment blueprint of 493 million yuan

The total investment for this disaster relief and reinforcement project is 493 million yuan, aiming to systematically enhance the comprehensive disaster resistance capability of the Jiangtang Lake flood area. The main construction content of the project includes four aspects: firstly, adding embankments and implementing anti-seepage reinforcement to fundamentally enhance the stability and anti-seepage capacity of the embankment; The second is to build flood prevention roads on the top of the embankment to ensure smooth traffic during emergency rescue and disaster relief; The third is to rebuild irrigation canals and coordinate flood control and agricultural production water demand; The fourth is to dismantle and rebuild the drainage pump station, directly improving the drainage capacity of the area.

It is worth noting that as a key water conservancy project in Fuyang City, this project has received support from the second batch of provincial water conservancy infrastructure investment in 2025. Fuyang City will also strictly organize project construction in accordance with requirements, ensuring that projects are completed on schedule and achieve expected benefits.

Build a solid bottom line of stability

After the completion of the project, it will bring multidimensional positive impacts. The most direct way is to establish a more effective safety production and flood prevention evacuation guarantee system by solving the problem of low drainage standards, thereby ensuring the safety of the lives and property of residents in the area. Higher security guarantees will also be transformed into a solid foundation for regional development. The implementation of the project helps to improve the production level and living conditions of residents in the area, providing a solid water security guarantee for the high-quality development of the basin's economy and society. Keywords: Engineering Information Platform, Construction News

Strengthening the Jiangtang Lake flood control area is another important enhancement of the entire flood control engineering system in the middle reaches of the Huai River. It ensures that in the face of future watershed floods, this critical water bowl can play a safer and more effective role in regulating and storing water, safeguarding the safety of the Huai River.Editor/Cheng Liting