2 January 2015

Gentlefolk,

BEST WISHES FOR 2015!

My first post for 2015.  I hoped to do this post yesterday but both gmail and blog.spot have been playing up. I suspect the Chinese government gremlins at work.  They don't like Google, and related sites. So far gmail has been OK, but for how long?

This post reflects on the last 12 months, and also includes an introduction to China's gigantic South-North Water Diversion Project.

2014 was another eventful year for the Olah family.  Highlights:

January: Family gathering in Hawaii to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary (18 October 1973).

February: Commenced blog: alexolah.blogspot.com

March: Birth of Caroline & Andrew’s son, Eddie, in Kuala Lumpur on 14 March 2014.

April: Alex’s national teaching award.

May: visit to Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

August: Roberts family commenced their five month trip around Australia.

October: moved to our cozy new apartment on the UPC campus. Sales of my book It's all about the students finally smashed through the 1,000 barrier - best seller it is not. Andrew & co moved from KL to Hong Kong.

December:  Scored a 15 minute profile on Qingdao TV (a program on six foreign experts working in Qingdao).

We spent July and August in Australia, mainly in Brisbane and Canberra.  Wonderful country!

September found us back at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, for the start of the first semester of the 2014-15 academic year. We continue to enjoy teaching and living here.

Of course many important international events occurred during the year, including: the Ukraine crisis started in March and is still with us. Two Malaysian Airlines disasters, MH370 and MH17, fixated the world. Scotland rejected independence. Germany beat Argentina to win the World Cup, etc, etc.

Nearer to home, the Blues finally won a State of Origin series. Sad to see the end of “At the Movies” with Margaret & David. Three Aussies who had a big impact on my generation passed away: Reg Gasnier, Jack Brabham, and Gough Whitlam.

Our New Year resolution? To get fit (and for me, to reduce the size of my 'paunch'). So yesterday we joined a local gym. Alleluia!

My last class was on Wednesday (Oral English); now we have 3 days off over New Year. Exams next week, then marking.

Actually, there was a bit of drama during the class on Wednesday.  A boy, Myron, asked me if he could make an announcement. He came to the front of the class and started talking about this semester and how he had fallen for a girl. He produced a bouquet of red roses, presented it to a girl called Crystal with a cry of "I really like you", and then fled.  Crystal was flushed and flustered, and assured the class that she was as surprised as everyone else.

At the end of the class one of the girls, Basma (Chinese name Zhang Jia Xin), gave me a card.  It read: "Dear Mister Olah. Happy New Year. Thank you for making learning not a dull thing, but a great joy.  One good teacher in a lifetime can sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen.  I would like to express my hope for your happiness and good future. Basma."

Wow, isn't that nice?  A comment like that makes teaching worthwhile.

Vera & I will leave Qingdao on 11 January 2015, first to Hong Kong, and then to the Land Down Under.   We'll return to Qingdao in early March for the start of the second semester.

That's enough about us.

...

Herewith a brief description of China's South-North Water Diversion Project, but first some background.

In April 2001, after 30 years of service, I retired from the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade). But I was only 54 and it was too early to just put up my feet, so I got a job as a Research Officer in Parliament House, Canberra and for the next 4 years worked on various committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

I enjoyed the job.  Parliament House was stimulating and the work interesting.  I used to go to the circuit classes in the gym at lunchtime, and often saw Tony Abbott working out although I never actually met him.

At one stage I was assigned to the Agriculture Committee which was conducting an inquiry into water resources.  Australia was in the grip of a prolonged and severe drought, and there was much concern and debate about our scarce water resources and how they should be allocated between households, agriculture and the environment.

The Committee received many submissions including several advocating the diversion of water from water-abundant northern regions of Australia to water-scarce southern regions, both along the east coast and the west coast .  If the massive monsoonal water flows in the north could be captured and transferred south, the country could be drought-proofed.

Such proposals had been around for some time. They were feasible in engineering terms, but didn't stack up economically. At the end of the day, farmers were not prepared to pay for the transferred water - it could only work with enormous government subsidies, and no government was willing to take on such huge projects.

But a project along those lines has now happened in China.

South-North Water Diversion Project

In China, the south is water-rich and the north is water-poor.  After years of study, in 2002 the government embarked on a project called the South-North Water Diversion Project.   The project has 3 parts: Eastern, Central and Western Routes (see images below).

Construction of the Eastern Route started at the end of 2002 and it began operating about 12 months ago.  The Route starts at Jiangdu near the mouth of the Yangtze River (near Shanghai), is 1,152 km long and utilises much of the infrastructure of the Grand Canal built in ancient times. Includes 23 new pumping stations with installed capacity of 453MW.  The Route is designed to eventually deliver 14.8 billion cubic meters of water per annum to areas of Jiangsu, Shandong and up to Tianjin.

The Central Route became operational last month; on 30 December 2014 the first water arrived in Beijing, having taken 2 weeks to transfer from its origin at Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hubei Province. This route is 1,264 km in length.  Initially it will deliver 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per annum, increasing to 13 bcmpa over time.

The Western Route is still in the planning stage - possible completion by 2050. The intention is to divert water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze to the Yellow River.

The initial total budget was around $60 billion, but by some reports expenditure has already passed $80 billion (yes, billion, not million!).  I haven't come across a cost-benefit analysis of this project; at the end of the day it is probably viewed as 'nation building' and bugger the costs.

Also, Beijing's water situation has been deteriorating. The water table had fallen by about 13 meters in the last 15 years, and what was left in the aquifers was polluted. A new source of water was urgently needed. As the national capital, Beijing has a very special place in China, and everything will be done to ensure its future.

Here are some images of the project.

A closer look at the Eastern Route and the Central Route, which are both now operational.

One of the big challenges was to cross the Yellow River - by four km long, huge tunnels 70 meters below the riverbed.

I take my hat off to Chinese engineers and contractors.  Some environmentalists have expressed concerns (as they did with the Three Gorges Dam too), but it is still an amazing feat of engineering.


There's plenty of information on the web about this project, if you want more details.

...

That's it for this post.

Just wanted to say "happy birthday" to my brother Andy.  Keep up the good work!

Everyone: stay well and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Friday 2 January 2014.