“This year, over 100mu fields whose irrigation water was depend on raining can be free from it and use the water reserved in the pool instead.”said gladly by Li Zhihe- the village secretary of Huanjialing village, Panjiang town, Jiahe county.

In recent years, an activity named “substitute subsidies with rewards” was carried out by Jiahe Water Affairs Bureau which greatly mobilize local people to join in the construction of water conservancy. Years ago, though some specified water conservancy construction funds would be reserved by Jiahe county, it was not enough to meet all towns and villages’ demands. To solve this problem, Jiahe county followed the principal “supporting by government, handling by private individuals, substituting subsidies with rewards” to encourage more people join in the water conservancy projects construction. According to the policy, every year, over 12million yuan special funds were rewarded to people who carry out the water conservancy projects construction. People could get the rewards on the basis of the funds they collected and saved in the special project.

There are just about 60 villagers live in Huangjialing village. Because of its poor geological condition, poor water-retention rate, and poor water infrastructure condition, the village greatly suffered from the drought. All villagers there expected to solve the problem eagerly. Assistant with the policy of “substitute subsidies with rewards” and over 40,000yuan rewards funds, the village collected over 80,000yuan to build a small pool and 1800meters long channels and solve the irrigation problem to the village successfully. Assisted with this pool, villagers can be free from depending on rain to handle the irrigation work.

It was introduced that 287projects of this “substitute subsidies with rewards” were carried out in Jiahe county with over 37.50million yuan investment. 136,000 villagers of 237 villages and groups benefited from this activity.