Zhongshan Reservoir

Construction and scale

According to the Lishui District government's reply to a people's congress proposal, Zhongshan Reservoir lies on the upper Yigan River in the south-east of Lishui District; construction began in November 1957 and the reservoir was closed for storage in May 1959; its catchment is 32.28 square kilometres and its total capacity 27.31 million cubic metres.

The district website's "Natural Resources" page describes the district's reservoirs only in general terms, recording that the district has medium-sized reservoirs including Zhongshan Reservoir, lying on the upper reaches of the Yigan River and other watercourses. Capacity and construction dates are incomplete on that page, and this entry takes the reply as authoritative for those fields.

Which capacity is meant

Reservoir capacity is reckoned in several ways: total capacity, flood-control capacity, useful capacity and dead capacity. The reply gives only the total capacity for this reservoir, so this entry gives only the total; it does not give figures under the other measures, and it does not shorten "total capacity" to "capacity".

The nature of the figures, and what is to be added

The figures above follow the wording of the reply; where they differ from the water authority's formal annual report, the annual report prevails. Still to be added: the engineering grade of the reservoir, the type and length of its dam, its design flood standard, the extent of its irrigation district, and the dates and content of successive reinforcement works.