Water Challenges in Gansu, China—Building Cisterns and Supporting Village Relocation

“Without water, people cannot live decent lives, no matter how hard they try,” said Lin Jing Xiu (林靜修) from the Tzu Chi Department of Charity Mission Development. Lin recounted that in the late 1990s, Wang Tuan-cheng (王端正), then vice president of the Tzu Chi Foundation, led a team to Tongwei and Huining counties in the southeastern part of Gansu Province, located on the Loess Plateau, to assess drought conditions and their impact on local farmers. The scope of the assessment later expanded to include Dongxiang, Jingyuan, Yongjing, and Guanghe counties.

The Loess Plateau is one of the world’s most severely eroded regions. Situated at an altitude of 1,000 to 3,000 meters (3,280 to 9,840 feet), it suffers from low rainfall and high evaporation, resulting in severe water scarcity. This scarcity hindered irrigation and forced residents to endure grueling journeys, often walking three to four hours, to fetch water for their daily needs.

Farming in this region was a constant gamble against nature. Farmers, uncertain about the timing and amount of rainfall, would still till the land and sow seeds, hoping for sufficient rain and a bountiful harvest. Most of the time, however, their efforts yielded just enough to scrape by—or nothing at all. This inefficient farming further damaged the fragile vegetation, perpetuating a vicious cycle of land degradation and poverty. As a result, young and able-bodied individuals were forced to find work elsewhere. Many children were unable to continue their education, and those fortunate enough to attend school had to leave their homes and families to study at distant institutions.

Recognizing that extreme water scarcity was driving poverty, family separation, and other social problems, Tzu Chi decided to build durable, high-quality water cisterns and rainwater harvesting systems for residents. Volunteers consulted with a drought research institute at Lanzhou University to determine the most effective solutions. They ultimately decided to construct 30-cubic-meter (1,060-cubic-foot) spherical cement cisterns for households, paired with cement rainwater collection surfaces. The cement cisterns addressed the problems of traditional earthen cisterns, which were prone to leakage, collapse, and contamination.

Between 1998 and 2009, Tzu Chi constructed 19,060 water cisterns across six counties in Gansu Province, benefiting over 100,000 people. Although rainfall in the regions did not increase, the amount of water stored grew significantly. After just a few rainfalls, the 30-cubic-meter cisterns would be filled, providing enough water for daily use and even some for irrigating farmland. Remarkably, these cisterns also helped young locals start families.

Women in drought-stricken areas in these regions often had to shoulder the burden of fetching water, a backbreaking task that continued into old age. As a result, young women were generally unwilling to marry into these water-scarce rural areas. “When we revisited the areas more than a decade later,” Lin Jing Xiu recalled, “the children we had helped were now parents themselves. I asked one woman why she decided to marry a man from this area, and she said, ‘Because his family has a water cistern!’”

Due to the improved living conditions brought about by Tzu Chi’s cisterns, they’ve become known locally as “wealth cisterns” and “happiness cisterns.”