This dam located in a very sandy region at the Jialuhe watershed, Wulitagou gully, is composed of sandy-silt soil. It is being raised by 2 m from its original height of 22 m using the hydraulic-fill method. A rubber hose (barely visible) is used to pump water from the reservoir onto the neighboring slope to wash the soil down to construct the body of the dam. No earth-moving machinery is needed, and the construction cost is kept very low. In this manner the cost of earth moving is only 1.5Y per cu m (about 1/4 the cost of machine construction). (right) The reservoir creates a lake in a semi-desert surrounding.
At the foot of the dam, some irrigated plots are used for planting tobacco leafs with a return of 1200 yuan per mu (after tax).
Other views of the Jialuhe watershed, and the Baijiapan area in the same vicinity.