RIVER PROBLEMS IN CHINA* 



HERBERT CHATLEY, 



D.SC. (ENGR.) LOND., M. INST. C.E. IRE. 



Engineering Department, Whangpoo Conservancy Board, 



The increasing attention which is being given to conser- 

 vancy problems in China owing to the paramount necessity 

 of enabling certain of the treaty ports to be accessible to 

 modern deep draught ships and the disasters which have 

 occurred from time immemorial from the bursting from 

 restraint of the Huang Ho, the Huai, the Hsi Kiang, the 

 Pei Ho and the Grand Canal serve as a ready excuse for 

 speaking of the general question of water control in China. 

 Much information of a technical character has been accu- 

 mulated by the different Conservancy Institutions and other 

 public bodies but it has not been co-ordinated and the 

 majority of this is not accessible or intelligible to the un- 

 technical man. 



The map, information and date contained below are 

 chiefly derived from the library and records of the Whangpoo 

 Conservancy Board, and I have obtained permission from 

 the Engineer-in- Chief of the Board to make use of these 

 records of his office for this brief resume of some of the pro- 

 blems which are crying aloud to be solved. 



The matter can be considered from several points of 

 view : 



(1) Irrigation and water-supply; (2) Navigation; (3) 

 Flood protection; (4) Power production. 



There are few countries in the world which can boast 

 so much concentration of the drainage. The whole of China 

 proper and more (excepting a few small coastal areas) dis- 

 charges to the sea through seven channels from North to 

 South, as follows : 



*Read before the Society December 6th, 1917. 



