Chapter 730 - Qiao Nan’s Profound Insights (1/2)

Chapter 730 Qiao Nan’s Profound Insights

This situation had happened once before with Zhai Sheng. At that time, Qiao Nan was scared out of her wits.

Fortunately, Zhai Sheng had always been very forgiving toward Qiao Nan. He had never forced Qiao Nan to tell him something that she did not wish to. Gradually, Qiao Nan had also let down her guard regarding this.

This time, she was so careless for having slipped so badly in front of s.h.i.+ Peng. This perked Qiao Nan up and made her more alert. She definitely would not let it happen a third time.

Qiao Nan’s heart was thumping rapidly but she gradually managed to calm herself down. “It’s not about whether I understand the situation or not. You’re from Mo Du while I grew up in Ping Cheng. Hence, I understand Ping Cheng’s situation more than you. Three years ago, at the east of Ping Cheng, there was a stream with water so clear that you could see the bottom of it. That crystal clear water even had a sweet taste to it. It was also easy to net small fishes and shrimps from the stream. Especially during summer, if the rain was not heavy, many would go there to catch fishes and shrimps. The beauty of that stream was as per every description of it in school textbooks. However, two years ago, a factory was built on the bare land in front of the stream. As a result, the flow of water to the stream was cut off. That stream has turned stagnant now. It first turned smelly and dried up thereafter. If you visit it now, you could see that the stream has already become a path.”

“This is just one of the examples. You came here late and don’t know that much. Such situations are not uncommon in Ping Cheng. There’re some parts of China with adequate water supply while some facing a serious shortage of water. A source of water is so important to a place that faces a shortage of water. It’s not something that people like us, from places that do not face such problems, can understand. One may not feel much initially regarding the damage and pollution of the environment. When the problem is visible, it’ll most likely be too late then. Why is it that when the west areas plagued with severe desertification are furiously planting poplar while places like ours with green hills and clear waters are chopping the trees blatantly? With fewer plants and trees, the biggest problem is the loss of soil. The trees are gone but the lands are still around. Once the rainy season of June arrives, with heavy storms and rains, there will be landslides. It’s so dangerous for those who live near the hills. You can’t imagine it at all. They’re staying near the gate of h.e.l.ls!”

Upon hearing this logical and lengthy speech of Qiao Nan which made every sense, s.h.i.+ Qing looked wide-eyed and tongue-tied. She could not utter a word for some time.

Even s.h.i.+ Peng was silent for some time. He was deep in thought about what Qiao Nan said.

Regarding the problem of water supply, as a government official, s.h.i.+ Peng was aware that the country had already researched and even come up with a project to divert water from the south to the north.

It could be said that this major project took more than ten years of meticulous efforts to complete, from its initial proposal and step-by-step detailed research until the final execution.

Relatively, the country spent so much effort, hard work, and monetary resources to support the project of diverting water from the south to the north. It was thus really bad to have a cutoff of water supply in places with adequate water supply.

Water is a source of life. If he really wished to protect the environment from pollution, the development and building of water supply was a major theme and project. He had neglected this point earlier.

Fortunately, Qiao Nan brought this up today. Otherwise, just as Qiao Nan said, by the time he realized, it would have been too late as the problem had occurred.

Right from the beginning, his objective was to stop all the environmental pollution and potential lurking perils caused by economic development as soon as it spelled trouble.

The most frightening words that he heard from Qiao Nan was about the monsoon season.

Although there were no landslides in Ping Cheng now, there were cases of many rocks of various sizes sliding down the hills during the monsoon season, causing accidents and deaths.

It was just that there were not many such cases, and most resulted in injuries, not deaths. The probability of occurrence was not high either. The final precaution that the government and the local departments administered after some short discussion was to put up warning signs near the areas with frequent incidents.

If a major natural disaster, such as landslides, were to occur, these small warning signs would be totally useless.

What Qiao Nan said were all false but there were many issues in it that s.h.i.+ Peng needed to think about. s.h.i.+ Peng was thus totally silent as he pondered deeply over the problems brought up by Qiao Nan.

As for s.h.i.+ Qing, she understood some of it but not all.

Of course, she understood literally what it meant as well as its implications.