The "hundred-million-yuan village" surprisingly faces drinking water difficulties! Some water supply projects are merely nominal, with farmers drinking "pig urine" and "rainwater from eaves." People's Daily reporters conduct an on-site investigation.

(Source: Shanghai Observer News)

Editor:

I live in Daba Village, Yongle Town, Fengjie County, Chongqing. Our village relies on orange cultivation and became a “billion-yuan village” in 2019. However, the village has long faced water shortages, making irrigation and daily drinking water difficult at times. Villagers collect rainwater, fetch creek water, and drink water from the Yangtze River. Over the years, the government has built many water supply projects, some of which were completed but never used, and some pipelines have been stolen or damaged.

Villager of Daba Village

In response to reports from villagers of Daba Village, Yongle Town, Fengjie County, Chongqing, reporters conducted an on-site investigation in mid-March.

Is drinking water a problem for villagers?

Villagers say some households collect rainwater from eaves and drink creek water that smells and tastes bad.

Daba Village is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Driving along the river in early spring, we see fruit trees on the hillside, some bearing oranges, others with flower buds.

Zuo Mingchun, the village secretary, introduced that Daba Village has 7 villager groups, with over 1,300 households and more than 4,000 people. Regarding the water shortage reported by villagers, he clearly responded: “Villagers have no difficulty with drinking water” and “no one drinks rainwater.”

Accompanied by village officials, the reporter visited the Longdongwan water supply project near the village committee. In front of us is an open circular large water tank, holding less than half a tank of murky water, with tadpoles swimming around the edge. Next to the tank is a roughly 5-square-meter pond filled with lush aquatic plants and green duckweed on the surface. Several black water pipes, brought from downstream, extend into the water. Randomly selecting one, the end is tied with a plastic bottle with multiple small holes, used to filter out debris. A village official explained that these pipes are household water intake pipes, “one pipe often supplies multiple households, about 10 or so pipes cover 30-40 households.”

Zuo Mingchun said the small pond’s water quality is qualified, and the village committee also uses this water source. He showed a water quality monitoring report issued by the county water resources bureau in December 2024, stating, “The large water tank is used for irrigation, and fish are also raised inside.”

However, during private visits, villagers nearby reported that the water in the small pond is insufficient, and some villagers have to fetch water from the large water tank “but the water is too dirty and smells bad in hot weather.” Villagers also said that some drink rainwater, while others claim to drink “pig urine water.”

Old Zhao (pseudonym) from Group 1 of Daba Village said his household’s drinking water comes from a spring near Longwangtang. When the reporter scooped a sample from his family’s water tank and smelled it closely, it was cool but faintly smelled of fish.

Following Old Zhao to the water source, several pipes entered the creek along the way. Near a pond, about 30 pipes were roughly counted. Old Zhao said one of them was his. The pond was covered with green algae, and a randomly pulled pipe’s filter plastic bottle was covered with dirt and turned black.

Continuing upstream along the creek, garbage such as plastic bags and pig manure can be seen along the banks, with some water surfaces floating black foam and emitting a livestock manure smell.

Old Qian (pseudonym), who also fetches water from Longwangtang, said, “The water was good before, but after pig farming started upstream, the water quality became very poor.” Seven or eight years ago, he spent over 10,000 yuan to build a 50-cubic-meter water pond on the hillside, bringing water here for settling before using it at home. The reporter saw black scum on the water surface of this pond as well. Old Qian’s kitchen faucet has a simple filter, which, when opened, revealed yellow-green slimy dirt. Old Qian said, “This was just cleaned three or four days ago.”

The reporter went to a higher elevation in Group 2 of Daba Village and found several farmhouses with A-shaped roofs covered with colored steel tiles, with white pipes connected at the eaves leading down into lower ponds.

Villager Lao Sun (pseudonym), who lives here, said they collect rainwater from the eaves and boil it for drinking, called “eaves water” or “sky water.” Lao Sun said, “Before spring rains each year, we clean the ponds, which usually have about two fingers’ worth of mud at the bottom. Every household uses this method.”

Lao Sun recalled that last summer was droughty with no rain, and the eaves had no water. Villagers repeatedly reported this, and the village committee brought about 600 cubic meters of water from nearby Tiejia Village, enough for over 40 households for a month, “but after that, it was gone.”

Villager Lao Zheng from Group 5 near the Yangtze River said their households directly draw water from the Yangtze River for drinking. When asked if they filter or disinfect the river water, he said they cannot afford the costs, “Who can afford that? No way.”

Is centralized water supply fully implemented?

Villagers say water supply projects are not operational, and some pipelines have been stolen and sold.

Daba Village thrived on orange cultivation, with a planting area of 12,000 acres. In 2019, it was selected as a national “One Village, One Product” demonstration village, and in 2020 and 2021, it was awarded as a national rural characteristic industry billion-yuan village. Why do some villagers still face water difficulties despite being a “billion-yuan village”?

It is reported that although Daba Village is close to the Yangtze River, it has long suffered from water shortages. Over the years, the governments of Fengjie County and Yongle Town have continuously invested in water conservancy and water supply projects. According to Yongle Town government data, from 2017 to 2025, 13 water projects have been completed in Daba Village, with a total investment of over 8.5 million yuan. A section chief named Li from Fengjie County Water Resources Bureau also introduced that there are 8 registered water supply projects in Daba Village, including Longdongwan, Liu Jialiang, Songshuliang, Hongshiliang, Huangnipin, Zhoujiawan, Swan Pond, and Daliangzi, designed to serve about 4,000 people.

“Centralized water supply coverage in Daba Village is basically 100%. Currently, it mainly relies on centralized supply, with villagers building dispersed emergency water sources as a supplement,” Li said. All households have water meters, and the centralized projects are tested annually; the dispersed sources are tested for water quality irregularly. When asked for recent testing records, the county water bureau only provided data from December 2024 (Longdongwan) and June 2025 (Songshuliang).

However, several villagers reported that newly built or expanded water projects for drinking and irrigation have not been used properly. For example, at the bank of Zhoujiawan, a diesel pump produced in 2019, invested by the government, was rusted and abandoned on the bank; at Baifanping, a high-power pump installed by the local government had disconnected pipes.

Villager Lao Jiang (pseudonym) told the reporter that this was an irrigation facility built during poverty alleviation, originally designed to pump water from the Yangtze into the Daba Village water tank, covering orchards in Groups 3, 5, and 6. “Since it was built, not only have villagers never used it, but some pipes have been stolen.” Lao Jiang said.

Similarly, the Swan Pond drinking water project completed in 2019, which was reported by media as capable of solving the drinking water problem for over 620 households, has not been used properly, and many pipes have been sawed off.

Who damaged the poverty alleviation project facilities?

A villager said that Xiong, responsible for garbage removal, cut pipes during the day to sell as scrap because the village committee owed wages. Other villagers followed suit, leading to thefts in Baixiyuan, Daliangzi, Wujiaobao, and other places.

Zuo Mingchun countered that the stolen pipes were old discarded ones replaced by the village committee. The police have already recovered some pipes about 5 centimeters in diameter.

At the Longdongwan irrigation pond site, the reporter saw two black PE water distribution pipes with a diameter of 11 centimeters, only a few centimeters of broken ends remaining (see photo, taken by People’s Daily reporter You Tianyi). The saw marks at the break suggest they were cut. A staff member named Yang, responsible for the project, confirmed on-site that the pipes were intact when handed over but were definitely cut later.

In the Swan Pond irrigation project, built simultaneously with the Swan Pond drinking water project, the steel galvanized pipes with a wall thickness of 4 mm and a diameter of 20 centimeters, which carry overflow, were also cut, leaving only a few centimeters of broken pipe.

Regarding the broken pipes, Zuo Mingchun said he was unaware and had not received reports; “We need to investigate.” Some village officials confirmed that after police investigation proved Xiong’s theft of pipes, he returned 852 yuan in stolen goods. The project settlement documents show that the stolen pipes are valuable: galvanized pipes of 20 cm diameter cost 171 yuan per meter, and PE pipes of 11 cm diameter cost 65 yuan per meter.

Villager Lao Wang (pseudonym), who knows the details, told the reporter that in 2024, the pipes for the Swan Pond irrigation project were mostly cut by Xiong. “In 2025, the city came to inspect, and the town reinstalled the pipes, but they used old pipes pretending to be new.”

To address Daba Village’s water supply issues, a project called “Fengjie County Yongle Town Daba Village Orange Industry Irrigation Supporting Facilities Improvement Project” with an investment of 2.4 million yuan was completed in 2026. The feasibility report states that “inadequate supporting water conservancy facilities and some damaged facilities” are among the main problems in Daba Village.

Are villagers unwilling to pay because of high costs?

Villagers say they only get water when inspections occur, and some water supply projects are essentially useless.

If the water supply was normal, why would pipelines be easily cut and stolen?

When asked, Zuo Mingchun admitted that the pipelines that were cut “probably had no water.” Xiong admitted over the phone that some of the cut pipelines belonged to safe drinking water and irrigation projects, and “they have had no water all along, even during droughts.”

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

Old Wu (pseudonym) from a household said his water meter was connected to half a pipe. He told the reporter that he paid 200 yuan to install the meter and pipes, but after water was turned on, only a ladle of water was supplied, and then it stopped. The meter showed only 0.2 cubic meters of usage. After wiping dirt off Old Qian’s water meter, it showed 1 cubic meter. He said he paid for the installation himself but has never had normal water since. Old Zhou (pseudonym) said that when he installed a new meter last year, there was water during the trial, but now his family relies on rainwater collection, and the meter shows only 2 cubic meters. Old Liang (pseudonym) has seven household water meters in his backyard, with the highest usage only 3.8 cubic meters. He said there was water only during the trial, and each household is only allowed to collect one bucket of water… Villagers unanimously said that the data on the meters only reflect short-term water during inspections.

Zuo Mingchun believes villagers do not use centralized water because they are unwilling to pay. Whether it’s Yangtze River water or mountain spring water, they prefer to use free water.

Most villagers say they fetch water themselves for drinking and irrigation, which is not cheap. Some villagers said they buy pumping equipment, dig ponds, and build water tanks, costing around 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. Even though they don’t pay for drawing water from the Yangtze, they still pay over 0.3 yuan per kilowatt-hour for electricity. “In a year, just for irrigation, electricity costs 500-600 yuan, especially in drought seasons when consumption is high,” said villager Lao Chen (pseudonym).

A villager from Group 1 in Daba Village said that in July and August 2025, his family spent over 1,000 yuan on electricity. “They pump water from morning till night, and sometimes burn out the pump, losing even more.”

“Even if water costs four or five yuan per ton, as long as there’s stable supply, I would be willing. I just need water for drinking, not much,” said villager Lao Li (pseudonym). When the Swan Pond drinking water project was completed, “we heard there was steady supply, and we were happy. But it turned out the staff only turned on the water for inspections, took photos, then shut it off, and we still had no water to drink.”

A villager living near the Longdongwan irrigation pond witnessed the photo-taking process during the inspection last year. “During the inspection, staff asked over the phone whether the water was flowing. I was standing nearby and heard them say it was flowing, then there was a ‘puff’ of water, they took photos, and then turned it off.” Since then, no water has been supplied.

Old Wang revealed that the Swan Pond drinking water project, which villagers like Lao Li and Lao Sun are hoping for, has lacked a stable water source from the start. They initially tried to draw water from Xinmin Town but failed, then switched to pumping from the Tiejia Village water plant. But Tiejia Village’s own water supply is limited, and Daba Village has to pay 2,000 yuan each time to draw water there. The water is only for inspection purposes. “Higher authorities come to check, and they draw water from Tiejia Village the day before to fill the tanks. Once the inspection team leaves, they stop the water,” Old Wang said.

A relevant person from Yongle Town government told the reporter that both the Swan Pond drinking water project and the irrigation project were funded by high-efficiency energy-saving irrigation subsidies in 2018, as part of poverty alleviation projects, with no feasibility study reports. The Fengjie County Water Resources Bureau’s project budget shows investments of 3.14 million yuan and 2.25 million yuan respectively.

Regarding the water supply project in Daba Village, Lao Li said, “The national policies are good, but they’ve been fooled in this matter.”

As the reporter drove away from Daba Village along the river highway, the weather was sunny, the road was clean, and the orange-shaped solar streetlights and bus stops added charm. Farmhouses dotted among the hillside orchards, with drones and trucks transporting oranges visible from time to time. A prominent slogan on the village entrance wall read: “How does Daba Village create an industrial miracle? It used to rely on sky-high hopes; now, they build water pools and lay water pipes, so even in droughts, they won’t lack water.” Who would have thought that behind such beautiful scenery, thriving industry, and prosperous life as a “billion-yuan village,” some villagers are still collecting rainwater and creek water? Why are the government-invested projects so ineffective?

Just before press time, on March 17, Yongle Town government announced that after investigating the issue of villagers drinking “pig urine water,” they found that Longwangtang indeed has about 300 pigs, with some pipelines damaged, causing manure leakage, and are organizing rectification. Additionally, repairs are underway for the Swan Pond pipeline network. We will continue to follow up.

Original title: Behind the “Billion-Yuan Village” Water Shortage (Investigation Report)

Source: People’s Daily

Original title: “Billion-Yuan Village” Actually Faces Water Shortage! Some Water Projects Are Useless, Villagers Drink “Pig Urine Water” and “Eaves Water” — People’s Daily On-Site Investigation

Column chief editor: Qin Hong Text editor: Li Linwei

Source: Author: People’s Daily