Yiwu Badu Reservoir, the first "Five-Self" water conservancy project in China

Speaking of Yiwu's Badu Reservoir, the first word that many locals think of is "night market". I found that the night markets in Yiwu are particularly prosperous, such as Santing Road Night Market, Beicun Night Market, Xinghuo Macun Night Market, Liuqing Night Market, Qingkou Night Market, etc., all of which are bustling with people. Even the Badu Reservoir has been fired up by the night market. Badu Reservoir Night Market is Yiwu's first water market, and the entire night market is conducted in ankle-deep flowing water. The lake water that has just flowed down from the reservoir is particularly cool and clear, and many people want to enjoy it barefoot. The night market doesn't start until the evening, so my interest is still on the reservoir. The birth process of Badu Reservoir was quite tortuous. It started construction in 1958 and stopped soon. It restarted in 1975 and stopped again in 1980. Since the 1980s, Yiwu's economy has developed rapidly, urbanization has accelerated, and the problem of water shortage has become increasingly prominent. In 1993, Yiwu decided to rebuild the Badu Reservoir. In 1995, the Badu Reservoir officially started construction. The reservoir area is located at the confluence of the Big and Small Badu Rivers, 20 kilometers away from Yiwu city. The total reservoir capacity is 36.74 million cubic meters, making it the second largest reservoir in Yiwu. In 1996, the Yiwu Municipal Government issued a document to adopt the "Five-Self" method of "self-raising funds, self-construction, self-charging, self-repayment, and self-management" to build the reservoir. Badu Reservoir became the first water conservancy project in the country to implement the "Five-Self" construction, with a total investment of 163.5 million yuan. In November 1998, the reservoir began to supply water to the city for testing, and in December, it officially connected to the grid for power generation. The reservoir can supply more than 36 million cubic meters of high-quality drinking water to the city and Dachen Town every year, increase the irrigation area of farmland by 133.33 hectares, and generate 2.15 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. The surroundings of Badu Reservoir are beautiful and the scenery is pleasant. It is a first-class protected area for drinking water sources and prohibits fishing, net fishing, swimming and other activities that may pollute the water body. Although the reservoir also has a romantic name called Riyue Lake, no tourism projects of any form have been developed in the lake area and upstream. Downstream of the reservoir, the winding Badu River flows leisurely. On both sides of the Badu River, nearly 20,000 cherry trees have been planted, known as the Ten Mile Cherry Blossom Creek. When the cherry blossoms are romantic, laugh in the crowd. 📍Detailed address: Ren Village, Shangkeng Pian, Dachen Town, Yiwu, Zhejiang Province