On Oct 13, 2022, the dam of Yuanwan Reservoir was successfully closed, marking the official start of the main construction project of Yuanwan Reservoir.

Yuan Wan Reservoir Project

The Yuanwan Reservoir project is one of the major projects explicitly constructed in the Huaihe River control plan. It is listed in the national list of 150 major water conservancy projects and a key water conservancy project in the opinions on the revitalization and development of Dabie Mountain Old Revolutionary Base Area. It is the first national major water conservancy project initiated since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan in Henan Province. It is also one of the 9 key water conservancy projects confirmed by the 106th executive meeting of the provincial government to be promoted and implemented in the past three years. It ranks first among the 25 provincial key water conservancy projects under the "Five water comprehensive reform" and is the key node of modern water network construction in Henan Province.

As an important part of the flood control engineering system in the upper reaches of Huaihe River, Yuanwan Reservoir is a large-scale water conservancy project which is mainly used for flood control, combined with water supply, irrigation, power generation and ecological improvement. It is located in the upper reaches of Huang River, a primary tributary of Huaihe River. The project initially approved a total investment of 5.516 billion yuan, the designed total storage capacity of 243 million cubic meters, flood control storage capacity of 121 million cubic meters, the maximum dam height of 34.3 meters, normal water level of 68.5 meters, flood limit water level of 65.5 meters, dead water level of 62 meters, control area of 480 square kilometers, The main construction contents include dam (homogeneous earth dam + concrete dam type), power station, fishway, etc. The total construction period is 48 months.

It is reported that the function of Yuanwan reservoir is to control the mountain flood in the upper reaches of Huang River, a tributary of Huainan River. In cooperation with Yanhe Reservoir, the flood control standard of Huang River has been raised from one in 10 years to one in 20 years. Combined with Zhishandian Reservoir on the main stream of the Huai River, Zhangwan Reservoir on Zhugan River, and Yanjia Reservoir on Yanjia River, the tributaries of Huainan River, etc., the flood control standard of polder areas above Wangjiaba has been increased from once every 10 years to more than once every 20 years, and the design flow of Huaibin station on the control section of the main stream of the Huai River has been controlled within 7,000 cubic meters per second. Once completed, Yuanwan Reservoir will supply 50.4 million cubic meters of water to cities and towns, irrigate 116,000 mu of farmland and generate 2.74 million KWH of electricity each year. Editor/He Yuting