Ningbo is a beautiful city with vitality and energy, surrounded by mountains and bordered by the sea, its prosperity benefits from the booming of water conservancy.

Ningbo is located in a typical subtropical monsoon climate region with abundant rainfall, and the mean annual rainfall for several years is approximately 1,500mm, in which the rainfall in April-September is 70% of the year-around level. The mean annual volume of water resources for several years is 7,500,000,000m3. Currently, the availability of water resources per capital is 1,050 m3, in only 60% of the level per capita across Zhejiang Province. In general, Ningbo is subject to resource-based and water-based shortage. There are many rivers flowing in Ningbo, the river network in plain areas is densely distributed, mountain streams are short-sourced and rapidly running, the local water system is composed of Yong River Basin, Xiangshan Port, and the seagoing water system of Sanmen Bay Area, in which the Yong River Basin covers 4,518km2 and is considered to be the populated and most economically developed area in Ningbo; the city-wide coastline is more than 1,500km, because the coasts and estuaries are located in the strong tidal region of the East China Sea, storm surges, droughts, floods and other natural disasters often hit due to meteorological and geographical impacts.

Over time, Ningbo's water conservancy has been developing with the strong support from the national, provincial and competent authorities, Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government always prioritize water conservancy, and the fast-track social and economic development has fueled on the rapid development of Ningbo’s water conservancy. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy, especially in the new century, Ningbo Water Conservancy has centered on securing the modernization construction and promoting social and economic development at all aspects, and aimed at ensuring water security, creating a harmonious water environment where people and water live in harmony, and realizing the modernization of water conservancy, resulting in the bustling of water conservancy construction, including standard seawalls, city flood control works, water source projects, overseas water diversion projects, “1,000 Li Clean River Channels”, “100 Reservoirs Security Guard”, “1,000,000 Farmers Drinking Water Project”, which in turn steps up the process of building the secured flood control system, the water supply security system and water ecological environment security system that fit to Ningbo’s social and economic development. By the end of the “Twelfth Five-year Plan”, the total water supply capacity of water source projects in Ningbo was up to 2,700,000,000 m3; owned 423 reservoirs of different types, including 6 large reservoirs and 26 medium-sized reservoirs; constructed more than 1,000 sluices of different types; completed more than 900km enbarkments and seawalls; dredged and renovated more than 5,000km river channels; and developed the electro-hydraulic irrigation and drainage capacity of 185,000KW. Ningbo has initially formed the water conservancy system with multiple features of water supply, flood control, moisture protection, dehumidification, irrigation, power generation and tourism.

The history of Ningbo’s nongovernmental water control can be traced back to the ancient times, famous water conservancy projects such as Tashan Weir in Yin County and Houhai Seawall are still working until now. Currently, we are practicing the “Five Waters Control” according to the provincial and municipal requirement, and efforts are pooled to create a new picture of Ningbo’s water conservancy practice where residents and waters live in harmony, with beautiful and clean water resources.