A group of people, two boats, coming in the wind, going in the rain, sunset and dusk, ten years in the blink of an eye. They play the role of "floating on the white strip water in the waves" on the Jinsha River every day, guarding the clear water of the river out of the Suijiang River; they are affectionately called "the beauticians of the Hundred Miles Long Lake".
Suijiang County is located in the reservoir area of Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River, which is an important ecological barrier and a national key ecological function area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In 2013, Suijiang County set up a reservoir area clean-up team, with 16 members of the team sticking to the blue waves of the lake for ten years, and in 2021, the water quality of the Suijiang section of the Jinsha River has reached the Class I water standard.
At 8:00 a.m. on January 25, a winter rain had just stopped, and the real-time temperature in Suijiang County was 2 degrees Celsius. The 16 team members set off again and started a new day of bleaching operations. The drifting boat that left the shore moved slowly, patrolling along the river, and the team members on the bow of the boat stood with rods, like soldiers stationed at the border, but the difference was that they were guarding a lake clear wave of a hundred miles long lake.
"It's mainly foam and branches that come out of the mountains upstream. The team members said that there was no flood in winter, and with the daily inspection and timely salvage, the garbage on the river was much less than in summer. In the vicinity of the teasing pier, because of the return of the river, some dead branches and domestic garbage gathered on the river, and the team members immediately waved the fishing net to get busy, and the movements were skillful and quick, and soon the garbage on the river surface was cleaned up.
It didn't seem to be difficult, and the reporter decided to give it a try. A branch more than three meters long, soaked in river water for a long time, weighed about 60 kilograms, the reporter worked hard to salvage, the branch drifted with the tide on the river, after several attempts, all ended in failure. With the assistance of the team members, it took about five minutes to barely get ashore, put down the net, and suddenly felt that his arms were sore.
"The boat is rocking, the garbage is drifting, you have to be quick to be quick to catch it!" said team member Chen Ping, who encountered a very heavy log, and it took two or three people to work together to salvage the boat.
The biggest feature of the river in the cold winter is that it is cold, and the biting cold wind quickly makes the hand unconscious. The engine room is the only sheltered space from the wind, and the crew is divided into two groups, one group patrols the bow of the ship, and the other group enters the engine room to use the temperature of the diesel engine to keep warm.
"It was cold, my knees were cold and numb. Chen Ping, 52 years old, has been working in the team for 10 years, and the perennial wind and rain have caused him to suffer from headaches and rheumatism. As soon as the snow and wind blew, his knees were sore and sore, and when he entered the cabin, he kept rubbing his hands and stomping his feet, trying to warm his body earlier.
Compared with the drifting team, the working environment of the driver Peng Meng is slightly better, but it is not easy to drive the drifting boat, because there is no fixed channel, often stop-and-go, reefs, wind and waves, aquatic plants, and hidden crises on the lake, for which Peng Meng has always been engrossed and does not dare to be sloppy. With 10 years of work experience, Peng Meng has developed a good skill, forward, reverse, steering, making quick judgments and dealing with them decisively.
"First of all, the distance is visually measured, the throttle and the reverse are well coordinated, the boat is fixed, and the angle of the boat is selected according to the movement of floating objects on the river, so that the workers can salvage the garbage. Peng said that the key is to beware of the dark shadow on the surface of the river, if the water surface suddenly darkens, it is likely to be a reef, at least stranded, or at worst damage to the propeller. One year, the drifting boat once hit a reef, and the cabin was quickly filled with river water, and to this day, looking back, Peng Meng is still terrified.
The drifting boat continues to drive, the beautiful scenery of the high gorge and the Ping Lake is refreshing, for tourists, it is a very good experience to enjoy the lake and mountains by boat, but the drifting team members have no time to enjoy the scenery. Every day, the team members repeat the action of hooking and fishing thousands of times, especially the need for arm strength and wrist strength.
"Come, Master Huang, let's make a whole plate. At 11 o'clock in the morning, Ling Yutian, who had just been rotated to the cabin for heating, challenged Huang Fengjun again, and the two suddenly exerted their strength, and the green tendons in their palms burst out, and they were pinched red, and two minutes later, Huang Fengjun was defeated. "Alas, alas, no, lose, one more game!" The two brothers had another competition, and the roar of the machine was mixed with hearty laughter, which added a touch of joy to the originally boring work.
"Our job is based on the strength of our hands, so we usually break our wrists to resist the cold and exercise our arm strength. Huang Fengjun said that after ten years of bleaching operations, his arm strength has also increased a lot.
Dead branches, foam, plastic...... By 12 noon, the team members inspected about 10 kilometers of the river near the county seat, and there was a large pile of garbage on the boat. Ling Yutian took off the new gloves he had only worn in the morning and saw that a hole had actually worn out. "It takes twenty or thirty pairs of gloves a year, and they are often soaked in water, so the gloves are not sharpened. Ling Yutian explained.
A bowl of boxed lunch, just a box of vegetable soup, the team members leaned on the railing of the boat, and ate it very sweetly. While everyone was eating, Huang Guangzhi fiddled with the dead branches that had just been salvaged from the river. "What are you going to do with this?" the reporter asked curiously, but Huang Guangzhi sold Guanzi: "You'll know later." ”
A handful of dead branches were quickly folded into small pieces of about 30 centimeters by Huang Guangzhi, and then tied up with a rope, and a slightly shaped dead branch was inserted in the middle; then he took out a few packets of clay from his pocket, kneaded them into small balls, and glued them to the dead branches; and then found a marker and a few post-it notes from the cabin, and wrote a big "Fu" character...... After some fiddling with Huang Guangzhi, a pot of colorful "dried flower bonsai" came into view like a trick, and a New Year's flavor came to his face.
"This is Lamei. Huang Guangzhi explained, waste utilization, in fact, is also a kind of treasure, the New Year is approaching, with this special pot of plum to the people of the county to worship the early years, hope that the Suijiang River is becoming more and more beautiful, hope that a river of clear water out of the Suijiang River.
Since 2012, the Xiangjiaba Power Station has been impounded by the river surface cleaning team for more than 10 years. The team members said that at first, about 1,000 tons of garbage could be salvaged every year, but in recent years, with the full implementation of the river chief system, the awareness of the protection of the Yangtze River has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the amount of garbage salvaged every year has been reduced to about 500 tons.
Wind and waves, reefs, sun and rain, for the drifting team, it is as normal as breathing. After hurriedly eating a boxed lunch, the team members went offshore again and rushed to the next body of water. In the distance, a reservoir of clear water, mighty to the east, rushing endlessly.
Source synthesis: Suijiang County Rong Media Center Reporter: Luo Hong Deng Wujun
Editorial Release: Western Mobile Media