On the morning of February 20, 2023, the mobilization meeting for the start of the key plain and low-lying land treatment project in the Huaihe River Basin of Henan Province was held in the urban-rural integration demonstration zone of Zhoukou City. Except for the main venue in Zhoukou Urban-rural Integration Demonstration Zone, the other six provincial cities involved will hold the event separately. The key plain depression control project in the Huaihe River Basin in Henan Province is one of the 150 major national water conservancy projects and one of the 60 major water conservancy projects that the Ministry of Water Resources will focus on promoting in 2023, with a total investment of 3.962 billion yuan. After the implementation of the project, it can comprehensively improve the flood control and drainage capacity of the treatment area.

The scope of project treatment includes four areas: the Yanhuai Depression, the Hongru River Depression, the Shaying River Depression and the Huiji River Depression. A total of 117 main and branch drainage channels have been treated, involving Zhoukou, Xinyang, Zhumadian, Luohe, Xuchang, Kaifeng and Shangqiu. There are 25 counties (districts) and 215 townships in the city, with a total population of 8.0149 million, a land area of 8915.94 square kilometers, and an area of 10.3555 million mu of cultivated land. The construction task is mainly to eliminate waterlogging on the surface, taking into account flood control and water resource utilization. Improve the flood control and drainage capacity of existing river channels by dredging river channels, building new and reinforcing embankments; building a complete flood control and drainage system in the treatment area through new construction, reconstruction, maintenance and reinforcement of supporting buildings such as bridges, culverts, and drainage stations. So that waterlogging can be drained and floods can be prevented, so as to completely change the situation of severe waterlogging and people's living difficulties in low-lying areas in the basin, and create good conditions for the sustainable development of the local economy. Editor/Xu Shengpeng