Is the Yellow River more and more dangerous? The riverbed is more than 10 meters above both banks, so why not dig it up?

The so-called "hanging river" refers to the continuous rise of the riverbed, and the continuous accumulation of sediment to form a new riverbed. In this way, the riverbed above the ground will form a huge drop, which will eventually lead to flooding.

The "overground rivers" of the Yellow River are mainly concentrated in the downstream areas. Every year, more than 400 million tons of sediment accumulate here, causing the riverbed to rise year by year and threatening the safety of residents on both sides of the river. In this case, why not dig up the sediment? ?

Sediment accumulation seems to have become the biggest safety hazard in the Yellow River. Over time, the sediment will only accumulate in the river. At present, a section of "overground river" of more than 800 kilometers has been formed downstream.

The silt in Hanoi has reached nearly 10 billion cubic meters, and the riverbed is also 4-5 meters higher than the two banks, and even some areas are already 10 meters high. The most important thing is that 400 million tons of sediment are still deposited here every year. It can be said that The people downstream live in danger every day.

The reason for this is that the Loess Plateau is located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. When the middle reaches of the Yellow River flows through here, it will carry a lot of sediment, while the lower reaches are mainly dominated by plains or hills. As the water flow slows down, a large amount of sediment accumulates. In this way , the riverbed will be continuously raised, causing the water level in the lower reaches of the Yellow River to rise.

According to data, the Yellow River carries about 1.6 billion tons of sediment each year, of which 1.2 billion tons will flow to the estuary, and the rest will accumulate on the downstream river bed, resulting in an increase of 7-8 cm in height of the river bed every year.

The "overground river" is so harmful, haven't we thought about digging it up? You must know that there are not a few sand dredgers produced in China today, and they have independently developed the largest heavy-duty self-propelled cutter suction vessel in Asia - Tian Kun . According to that, sand dredging is indeed a feasible solution, but if it is really that simple The country would have already taken action.

First of all, we must understand that the Yellow River bed is not created in one or two days. Today, the sediment deposition in the Yellow River can almost be calculated by "trillion tons". If we want to dig out the sediment deposited downstream, we can imagine the workload. huge.

Moreover , the Yellow River is more than 5,000 kilometers long, 800 kilometers of which belong to the riverbed. Not to mention that the current technology and conditions cannot deal with these long-deposited sands, even if they are excavated, where should this huge amount of sediment be placed? ?

Although sand can be used in construction, the sediment in the Yellow River is different, and it is difficult to play a practical role in agricultural land or construction.

In addition, sand dredging requires a lot of cost , especially for a large-scale heavy weapon like the "Tian Kun", which consumes a lot of money each time it is started, and for the workload of the Yellow River, a "Tian Kun" "No." is far from enough, and increasing the construction cost will be another energy consumption.

In addition, in order to transport the sand, the local traffic must be improved , because the road carrying these huge sand-like roads is difficult to bear, so the nearby roads along the road must be stabilized.

In the end, it will destroy the local ecological environment . Although the water quality of the Yellow River is not as clear as other places, after such a long time, there are not a few animals and plants growing in the Yellow River. They have adapted to the current living environment. creatures cannot survive.

In addition, if a large number of riverbeds are removed, the bottom of the Yellow River will decline as a whole, and a large amount of space will be freed up, which also means that the water storage capacity of the river channel will increase, so that most of the farmland in the lower reaches of the Yellow River will be affected. This is why the country The main reason for not adopting the sand dredging method.

Therefore, in order to solve the problem of sediment in the Yellow River, we must start from the source. The main reason for desertification in the upper reaches is due to overgrazing and woodcutting by pastoralists. In this regard, we can control the number of grazing and woodcutting, and continue to increase vegetation coverage to stabilize soil and water.

In the middle reaches, the management of the Loess Plateau is strengthened. Although the current Loess Plateau is full of abundance compared with the past, due to the excessive mining of caves by people, the surface of the Loess Plateau is seriously exposed in many places .

In this regard, we must strictly control the development of local mineral resources , build dams and silts in areas with gentle slopes, build trapezoidal paddy fields, actively encourage and organize local residents to combine agriculture, forestry, trees, and animal husbandry, and increase vegetation planting.

As long as the soil erosion on the Loess Plateau is resolved, the sediment problem in the middle and lower reaches can be further curbed. That is to say, the most feasible way to control the sediment in the Yellow River is to continuously increase the vegetation coverage around the Yellow River.

In fact, people's governance of the Yellow River has never stopped since ancient times. From the earliest myth and legend "Gun Yu controlled the water ", people knew the basic governance policy of "blocking is better than dredging", which laid the foundation for the construction of a large number of flood control dams during the Warring States Period.

When it came to the diversion measures in the Han Dynasty and the "double dams" used by Pan Jixun later , these flood control methods have been used to this day, but they are only suitable for flood control. The problem of sediment deposition in the Yellow River has not been practically solved. The dike problem suffers greatly.

In modern times, the state has continued to promote the Yellow River flood control and sand control system. In addition to returning farmland to forests in nearby areas, the state has also built a number of reservoirs, such as Xiaolangdi and Sanmenxia. These measures are more cost-effective than sand dredging.

Although the problem of sediment deposition in the Yellow River has not yet been completely cured, as long as we insist on planting trees and protecting the Yellow River, the problem of the "overground river" of the Yellow River will be solved.