People's Daily Readers' Letter: Drinking Rainwater and Creek Water in Daily Life, Why Is "Billion-Yuan Village" Still Facing Drinking Water Difficulties

Source: People’s Daily

Title: Some villagers in Daba Village, Yongle Town, Fengjie County, Chongqing, report that their daily life relies on rainwater and creek water

Behind the water scarcity in the “billion-yuan village” (Letter Investigation)

Dear Editor:

I live in Daba Village, Yongle Town, Fengjie County, Chongqing. Our village relies on growing navel oranges and became a “billion-yuan village” in 2019. However, the village has long faced water scarcity issues, making it difficult at times to irrigate fruit trees and have daily drinking water. Villagers collect rainwater, creek water, and water from the Yangtze River for drinking. Over the years, the government has implemented several water supply projects, but some have been completed without being used, and some water supply pipes have been stolen or damaged.

Villagers of Daba Village

In response to the feedback from villagers in Daba Village, a reporter visited the village for an on-site investigation in mid-March.

Is there no difficulty in drinking water for villagers?

Villagers said some households collect rainwater from their eaves and drink foul-smelling creek water.

Daba Village is located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River. The reporter drove along the river and saw that it was early spring, with hillsides full of fruit trees, some bearing navel oranges and others budding flowers.

Zuo Mingchun, the village secretary of Daba Village, introduced that the village has 7 villager groups, with over 1,300 households and more than 4,000 people. Regarding the villagers’ reports of difficulties in obtaining drinking water, he clearly responded, “Villagers have no difficulty in drinking water” and “No one drinks rainwater.”

Accompanied by village officials, the reporter arrived at the Longdong Bay water supply project near the village committee. In front of them was an outdoor circular reservoir, holding less than half a pool of murky water, with tadpoles swimming around the edges. Adjacent to the reservoir was a water pit about 5 square meters, with lush water plants and a surface covered in green duckweed. Dozens of black water pipes drawn from the mountain below extended into the water. The reporter randomly selected one and found that the end of the pipe was tied to a plastic bottle with multiple small holes, used to filter debris from the water. A stationed village official explained that these water pipes are for villagers to draw water into their homes, “one pipe often serves multiple households, and a dozen pipes roughly cover thirty to forty households.”

Zuo Mingchun stated that the water quality in the small water pit is qualified, and the village committee also uses this water source. He produced a water quality monitoring report issued by the county water resources bureau in December 2024, stating, “The large reservoir is used for irrigation and also raises fish.”

However, during private visits, nearby villagers reported that the water volume in the small water pit is insufficient, and some villagers, out of desperation, also draw water from the large reservoir, “but the water in the large reservoir is too dirty and smells terrible in hot weather.” Villagers also said that not only do some people drink rainwater, but there are also claims of drinking “pig urine water.”

Old Zhao (pseudonym) from Group One of Daba Village said that his drinking water is drawn from a water channel formed by a spring near Longwangtang. The reporter scooped a ladle of water from his storage tank and brought it close to his nose; it was cool but faintly smelled foul.

Following Old Zhao to the water source, numerous water pipes could be seen entering the water channel along the way. At one water pit, the reporter roughly counted about 30 pipes, and Old Zhao indicated that one of them belonged to his household. The water pit was filled with green phytoplankton; randomly picking up a pipe, the plastic bottle at the bottom used for filtering was covered in dirt and had turned black.

Continuing upstream along the water channel, plastic bags, pig manure, and other garbage were visible along the banks, with some surfaces covered in black foam, exuding the smell of livestock waste.

Similarly, Old Qian (pseudonym), who draws water from the Longwangtang source, said, “The water used to be fine, but after someone upstream started raising pigs, the water quality deteriorated.” Seven or eight years ago, he spent more than 10,000 yuan to build a water tank of about 50 cubic meters on the hillside to collect water, which he then connected to his home. The reporter saw that the surface of this water tank also had black foam. Old Qian’s kitchen faucet was fitted with a simple filter; upon removing it, yellow-green stains with a slightly sticky feel were visible. Old Qian said, “This was just washed three or four days ago.”

When the reporter reached a higher altitude in Group Two of Daba Village, he found several farmhouses with A-shaped roofs covered with colored steel tiles, with white pipes connecting the eaves to a lower water tank.

Villager Old Sun (pseudonym), who lives nearby, explained that over 40 households in their area “collect rainwater to boil for drinking,” which they refer to as “eaves water” or “sky water.” Old Sun said, “Every year before the spring rains, we clean the water tank, and there is about two fingers’ worth of mud at the bottom; every household does this.”

Old Sun recalled that during the summer drought last year, there was no water from the eaves at all. Villagers continuously reported the issue, and the village committee brought in about 600 cubic meters of water from the nearby Tiejia Village, which lasted for only a month for over 40 households; “after that, there was no more.”

Nearby, villager Old Zheng from Group Five indicated that a few households directly draw water from the Yangtze River for drinking. When asked if they filter or disinfect the river water, he replied that they cannot afford the costs, “Who can afford that? There’s no way.”

Is centralized water supply fully covered?

Villagers say water supply projects do not function, and some pipes have been stolen.

Daba Village flourishes due to navel orange cultivation; data shows that the village has a planting area of 12,000 acres and was selected as a national “one village, one product” demonstration village in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, it was recognized as a national billion-yuan village for rural characteristic industries. Why do some villagers in this “billion-yuan village” still face difficulties in obtaining drinking water?

It is reported that although Daba Village is adjacent to the Yangtze River, it has long faced water scarcity. Over the years, the governments of Fengjie County and Yongle Town have continuously invested in water conservancy and supply project construction. According to data provided by the Yongle Town government, from 2017 to 2025, Daba Village has completed 13 water conservancy projects with a total investment of over 8.5 million yuan. A section chief surnamed Li from the Fengjie County Water Resources Bureau also mentioned that there are eight registered water supply projects in Daba Village, namely Longdong Bay, Liujialiang, Songshuliang, Hongshiliang, Huangniping, Zhoujiaban, Swan Pond, and Daliangzi, designed to cover a population of about 4,000 people.

“The coverage rate of centralized water supply in Daba Village has basically reached 100%. Currently, centralized water supply is the main source, with villagers’ self-built decentralized emergency water sources as a supplement.” Section Chief Li explained that every household has achieved water meter installation, and centralized water supply projects are tested once a year; decentralized water sources are tested for water quality irregularly. When the reporter requested recent test records, the Fengjie County Water Resources Bureau only provided water quality monitoring data for the Longdong Bay and Songshuliang water supply projects in December 2024 and June 2025, respectively.

However, many villagers reported that newly built and expanded drinking and irrigation projects have not been functioning properly. For irrigation projects, the reporter, guided by villagers, saw that at the Zhoujiaban riverbank, a diesel pump invested by the government and produced in 2019 was rusty and abandoned on the bank; at Baifanping, a high-power pump allocated by the local government had its connecting pipes broken.

Villager Old Jiang (pseudonym) told the reporter that these irrigation facilities were built by the local government during the poverty alleviation period, with the original plan to draw water from the Yangtze River to the Longdong Bay reservoir, covering the orchards of Groups Three, Five, and Six of Daba Village. “From completion until now, not only have the villagers never used it, but some of the water pipes have also been stolen,” Old Jiang said.

Similarly, the Swan Pond drinking water project, built in 2019, was reported by the media to solve the drinking water problem for over 620 households in the village, but many villagers reported that the project has not been functioning normally, with multiple water pipes sawed off.

Who destroyed the facilities of the poverty alleviation project?

A villager stated that a person named Xiong, responsible for garbage collection in the village, sawed off pipes during the day, using the excuse of unpaid wages from the village committee, and other villagers followed suit, leading to pipes being stolen in locations like Bailayang, Daliangzi, and Wujiaobao.

In response, Zuo Mingchun refuted that what was stolen were the old pipes replaced by the village. The village committee has reported to the police and recovered some pipes about 5 centimeters in diameter.

However, at the site of the irrigation reservoir in Longdong Bay, the reporter saw that two black PE distribution pipes with a diameter of 11 centimeters had only a few centimeters of broken ends remaining (see photo, People’s Daily reporter You Tianyan took this photo), with saw marks at the break. A staff member named Yang, who was responsible for the project construction at that time, confirmed on-site that the pipes were intact when the project was handed over, “they must have been sawed off.”

At the same time, in the irrigation project built concurrently with the Swan Pond drinking water project, the reporter observed that a galvanized seamless steel pipe with a thickness of 4 mm and a diameter of 20 cm receiving overflow had also been cut, leaving only a few centimeters of broken ends.

Faced with the broken pipe site, Zuo Mingchun claimed he was unaware and had not received any feedback, “I need to investigate.” Some village officials confirmed that after Xiong’s theft of the pipes was verified by the police, he was dealt with by returning the stolen money of 852 yuan. However, the relevant project settlement data indicates that the stolen pipes were quite valuable, with galvanized pipes of 20 centimeters in diameter costing 171 yuan per meter and PE pipes of 11 centimeters in diameter costing 65 yuan per meter.

Villager Old Wang (pseudonym), who is familiar with the situation, told the reporter that the pipes for the Swan Pond drinking and irrigation projects were essentially cut off by Xiong, “In 2025, when the city came to inspect, the town reinstalled the pipes, but they used old pipes disguised as new ones.”

To resolve the water supply issue in Daba Village, the “Improvement Project for Irrigation Supporting Facilities for Navel Orange Industry in Daba Village, Yongle Town, Fengjie County,” with an expected investment of 2.4 million yuan, has completed its design in 2026. The feasibility study report for this project pointed out that “the existing water conservancy facilities are not well-matched and some facilities are damaged” as one of the main issues for Daba Village.

Do villagers think it is too expensive to use?

Villagers say water is only provided when inspections occur, and some water supply projects are virtually useless.

If water supply were functioning normally, how could the supply pipes be easily sawed off and sold?

Under the reporter’s questioning, Zuo Mingchun admitted that there “should be no water” in the cut pipes. Xiong, on the phone, also admitted that some of the pipes he sawed off were part of the safe drinking water and irrigation project pipes, which “have always had no water, and even during dry times, they were not used.”

To verify the actual situation of centralized water supply in Daba Village, the reporter randomly visited nearly 20 households and checked the water meters, finding that most were installed for many years with water usage not exceeding 5 cubic meters.

Villager Old Wu (pseudonym) had a water meter connected to a half pipe. He told the reporter that he spent 200 yuan to install the meter and pipe, and after the water was turned on, he only received a ladle of water and then no more supply, with the meter showing a usage of 0.2 cubic meters; wiping off the dirt from Old Qian’s water meter showed a usage of 1 cubic meter; he said that after self-financing the installation of home facilities, he has never had a normal water supply; Old Zhou (pseudonym) stated that the new water meter installed last year had water only during a test, and his household still relies on collecting rainwater for living, with the meter showing a usage of 2 cubic meters; in Old Liang’s (pseudonym) backyard, piles of used water meters from 7 neighboring households were stacked, with the highest usage only at 3.8 cubic meters; she said there was water only during the initial test, and each household was allowed only one bucket of water… Villagers unanimously stated: the data on the water meters reflects the short-term water usage during acceptance testing.

Zuo Mingchun believes that villagers do not use centralized water supply because they are unwilling to pay for water. Regardless of whether it is river water or spring water, they prefer to use water that costs them nothing.

However, most villagers indicate that drawing water themselves for drinking and irrigation incurs significant costs. Some villagers explained that purchasing pumping equipment and digging ponds to build water tanks “costs around 10,000 to 20,000 yuan altogether.” Even if they draw water from the Yangtze River without paying for water, they still have to pay over 30 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. “By the end of the year, just the irrigation electricity bill can reach five to six hundred yuan, especially during the dry season when it consumes a lot,” said villager Old Chen (pseudonym).

A villager from Group One of Daba Village said that in July and August of 2025, his family spent over 1,000 yuan on electricity bills. “We pump water from day to night, and it even burned out the pump, leading to larger losses.”

“Even if the cost is four or five yuan per ton, as long as there is a stable supply of water, I am willing to pay. I just need to drink, and it won’t be much,” villager Old Li (pseudonym) told the reporter, recalling the Swan Pond drinking water project, “I heard there would be stable water supply, and we were all very happy. Unexpectedly, they (the staff) only released water for photographs during inspections; once the photos were taken, they turned it off, and we still had no water to drink.”

A villager from Group Three living near the Longdong Bay irrigation reservoir witnessed the process of photographing the Longdong Bay project. During last year’s inspection, a staff member asked over the phone, “Is that water coming through?” “I was standing right next to it and heard them say on the phone, ‘Puff,’ and a jet of water sprayed out; they took a photo and then turned it off.” Since then, no water has been supplied.

Old Wang revealed that the drinking water project at Swan Pond, which Old Li and Old Sun hoped for, has always lacked a stable water source. Initially, attempts were made to draw water from Xinmin Town but failed; later, they switched to drawing water from the Tiejia Village water plant. However, Tiejia Village itself does not have abundant water supply; Daba Village has to pay 2,000 yuan for each draw, and the drawn water is only to deal with inspections. “When the higher-ups are about to inspect, the day before, they draw water from Tiejia Village to fill the tank, and once the inspection team leaves, they immediately stop the water,” Old Wang said.

A relevant official from the Yongle Town government told the reporter that both the Swan Pond drinking water project and the irrigation project were funded by high-efficiency and energy-saving irrigation project subsidies used in 2018, during the poverty alleviation period, and there is no feasibility report available. The budget provided by the Fengjie County Water Resources Bureau indicates that the two projects cost 3.14 million yuan and 2.25 million yuan, respectively.

Regarding the water supply project in Daba Village, Old Li said, “The national policy is great, but we were fooled on this matter.”

As the reporter drove away from Daba Village along the river road, under the bright sun, the road was clean, the solar-powered streetlights shaped like oranges and bus shelters were unique, and the houses were scattered among the fruit trees. Drones and large trucks transporting navel oranges could be seen from time to time. The wall at the village entrance prominently displayed the slogan, “How did Daba Village create an industrial miracle? Previously, we relied on heaven for harvests; now we build water tanks and lay water pipes, ensuring we don’t lack water even during severe droughts.” Who would have thought that behind such a beautiful landscape, thriving industry, and prosperous life in a “billion-yuan village,” some villagers are still collecting rainwater and drinking creek water, while the government-invested projects are practically useless?

Just before publication, on March 17, the Yongle Town government announced that an investigation into the villagers’ claims of drinking “pig urine water” found that there indeed exists a pig farm with about 300 pigs near Longwangtang, where a broken pipeline caused sewage to leak out, and they are organizing a rectification. Furthermore, repairs are also underway for the damaged Swan Pond pipeline. This report will continue to follow up.

Reporter Sun Liji and People’s Daily reporter You Tianyan

People’s Daily (March 24, 2026, Page 07)