Xiangjiaba Irrigation District North Main Canal Headworks

Phase I of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project in Sichuan Province Officially Begins Water Supply

On February 6, the water supply commencement event for Phase I of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project in Sichuan Province was held in Yibin City. As the gates of the tunnel beneath the Minjiang River bed on the Xiangjiaba North Main Canal slowly opened, clear water from the Jinsha River surged forth, marking the completion and commissioning of the main works of Step One of Phase I of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project.

The Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project is an important "horizontal" component of Sichuan Province's "six horizontal and six vertical" backbone water network project and a key water resource allocation project designated in the Comprehensive Plan for the Yangtze River Basin. Its development tasks are agricultural irrigation and urban-rural domestic and industrial water supply. It is of great significance for safeguarding agricultural irrigation and urban-rural water supply security in the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone and for helping to build a higher-level "Tianfu Granary" in the new era. The Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project benefits 21 counties (cities and districts) in 4 cities of Sichuan—Yibin, Zigong, Neijiang, and Luzhou—as well as Shuifu City in Yunnan Province. Its multi-year average water supply is 1.78 billion cubic meters, with a designed irrigation area of approximately 5 million mu and a water supply population of approximately 7.54 million. It is being built in two phases.

Water Supply Test

Water resource shortage has long been one of the constraints on economic and social development in the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone. Phase I of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project involves 11 counties (cities and districts) in 4 cities of the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone—Yibin, Zigong, Neijiang, and Luzhou—with a total investment of 15.7 billion yuan. After the overall completion of Phase I, the multi-year average water supply will be 847 million cubic meters, which will greatly alleviate the engineering-related water shortage in Southern Sichuan, effectively guarantee water for production and daily life for 2.54 million people and irrigation water for 1.98 million mu of cultivated land, and support the high-quality development of the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone and the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle. Phase I is implemented in two steps: Step One and Step Two.

Guanyinwan Pumping Station

Step One of Phase I of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project, which began water supply that day, involves 7 counties (districts) in 3 cities—Yibin, Zigong, and Neijiang—with a designed irrigation area of 510,000 mu, a water supply population of 1.4 million, and a total investment of 7.6 billion yuan. The main works started in December 2018, full construction began in June 2020, and the water supply acceptance was completed in December 2024. Facing difficulties such as a long construction front, complex topography and landforms, and cross-regional construction coordination, all participating parties worked together and overcame difficulties. More than 5,000 people worked continuously for more than 2,000 days and nights, building 147.8 kilometers of new main and branch canals. Step Two of Phase I, which is under accelerated construction, involves 7 counties (cities and districts) in 4 cities—Zigong, Neijiang, Luzhou, and Yibin—with a designed irrigation area of 1.47 million mu, a water supply population of 1.14 million, and a total investment of 8.1 billion yuan. Its main works started in October 2023 and are expected to be completed by the end of 2028.

Longdongyan Tunnel After Lining Completion

According to a responsible person from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Water Resources, Phase I of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project is the first backbone water network project to begin water supply that is led and implemented at the provincial level after the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government innovated the investment, construction, operation, and maintenance system and mechanisms for major cross-city (prefecture) water conservancy projects and established Sichuan Water Development Group Co., Ltd. It is also the first cross-city backbone water network project in the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone to begin water supply. During construction, scientific and technological innovation was consistently upheld to lead the work, and a series of technical challenges were overcome. In particular, for the first time in the province's water conservancy projects, the shield tunneling method was adopted to build the 1,350-meter tunnel beneath the Minjiang River bed, with the shallowest point between the tunnel crown and the river bed being only 11 meters, efficiently resolving the prominent conflicts between project construction and river navigation and ecological protection. The project achieved a number of innovative results, including 12 invention patents and 40 new construction methods, 7 science and technology awards such as BIM application competition awards, 2 Class I Quality Achievement Awards for excellent water conservancy projects, and a total of 93 scientific and technological innovation achievements. It also set multiple construction records, such as the Wafangtou Aqueduct, whose maximum single span reaches 45 meters, making it the simply supported prestressed beam aqueduct with the largest span in China.

Wafangtou Aqueduct After Completion

At present, full efforts are being made to carry out follow-up work such as the completion acceptance of Step One of Phase I and the establishment of operating mechanisms, and to accelerate the construction of Step Two of Phase I and the preliminary work of Phase II, so as to ensure that the comprehensive benefits of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project are brought into full play as soon as possible.

A responsible person from Sichuan Water Development Group Co., Ltd. introduced that the preliminary work for Phase II of the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District Project is being advanced in an orderly manner. The project involves 17 counties (cities and districts) in 4 cities—Yibin, Zigong, and Luzhou in Sichuan and Shuifu City in Yunnan—with an annual water supply capacity of 935 million cubic meters, a designed irrigation area of approximately 3 million mu, a water supply population of approximately 5 million, and an estimated investment of approximately 34.3 billion yuan. In the future, with the gradual implementation of Phase II, the Xiangjiaba Irrigation District will further improve the water resource allocation system of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and provide solid water security for coordinated regional development.