News from HSINHUA NEWS AGENCY
trash and the bourgeois idealist and metaphysical viewpoint of denying the existence of drinkable water. in line with chairman mao's teaching *serve the people whole-heartedly" they firmly geared their hydrogeological work to the needs of the people so as to find underground drinkable water.
in line with chairman mao's viewpoint that practice is primary, the team party branch sent out several groups to some places of different geological types and typical water- showing points to make careful investigations.
in the koutan production brigade of the machiakaochuang commune on the edge of the ordos highlands the peasants 'dug more than 20 wells in a 1,000 square metre area.
some wells had drinkable water, while others did not. when an investigation group came to the place they made a preliminary survey of the terrain and the formation of the strata but failed to find differences. they held an on-the- spot class to study chairman mao's teaching in the article "on contradiction": "every form of motion Contains within itself its own particular contradiction. this particular contradiction constitutes the particular essence which distinguishes one thing from another." they applied this viewpoint in making a concrete analysis of the drinkable water in a big area of undrinkable water. they said that the existence of such water signified that there must be specific conditions and laws for its formation. once these conditions and laws were recognized, it would be possible to work out methods for Locating drinkable water.
therefore, they went to live and work in the sandstorm-swept
place near the wells and went down every well to make detailed observations. in order to ascertain the direction of
then they
the flow of the underground drinkable water they would sometimes stay in cold muddy water for hours on end. repeated observation and investigation gave no clue as to where the underground drinkable water in the wells came from or went to. the drinkable water was scattered at points or in short lines. the geological team thought that the drinkable water underground might have been formed through the permeation of rain. experimented in digging more wells while interviewing many Local people to understand the historical changes of the strata. they found out that the Location of the drinkable water well had been a ditch 30 years earlier. whenever it rained, the water accumulated on the ground converged there. Later the ditch was filled up with silt and the local people dug out drinkable water there. several other investigation groups also arrived at the same conclusion. this leap in the knowledge gave great inspiration to the members of the team and strengthened their determination to locate drinking water. Later, through many observations and tests to contrast the composition of drinkable and undrinkable water they found
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1971
out that the undrinkable water in the vicinity of drinkable water was desalted through gravitational differentiation and the effect of temperature difference of the ground surface. it constantly replenished the underground drinkable water. this increased their store of information. on the basis of this they returned to the place where no water had been found before and dug wells of drinkable water for the people.
in september and october 1970 the geological team went to the mountain where Lochuan commune was located. not a single well had been dug there before. the team dug three experimental wells at one locality but failed to find drinkable water.
they had to determine whether there was any drinkable water. the party branch secretary of the team led the members in re-studying chairman mao's teachings in "on practice". they said that correct knowledge can only be arrived at through repeated practice and stressed the necessity of making clear the commune's geological situation. in a few days they gathered much data,even local proverbs for Locating water.
the support of the people inspired them. braving biting wind in the depth of winter they climbed mountains, travelled all over the commune's gullied land and made a detailed study of the terrain, soil and plants. finally they grasped the hydrogeological law of the locality. in the past year they have dug more than 40 wells for the commune and these in the main met the needs for drinking water of the people and their herds. in previous summers most of the commune's Livestock had to be driven down from the mountain for watering and the production teams used one third of their labour power to bring up water on donkeys.
in the light of chairman mao's teaching "the masses are the real heroes", the geological team fully aroused the people for a drive to locate drinkable water. wherever they went, the members formed three-in-one groups with the Local poor and lower- middle peasants to study chairman mao's works, make revolutionary mass criticism and strive to locate water. they also convened many meetings to talk over their experience in locating water and digging wells and this stimulated the mass drive.
whenever the geological team went to a commune or a production team it first dug one or two wells by way of example and drew a diagram of the drinkable water-showing points, the terrain and objects on the ground with easily under- stood illustrations so that the local people could dig the wells themselves. now wherever the team goes the Local
people can dig out drinkable water wells, based on such diagrams. end item
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