In 1951, work started to harness the Huai River. "The Huaihe River originates from the Tongbai Mountain in Henan Province and flows into the Yangtze River through three provinces, namely Henan, North Anhui and North Jiangsu. There are nearly 60 million people living on this land, with an area of 170 million mu of arable land. The Huaihe River Basin has a mild climate and fertile soil, and originally is a place rich in products. However, from the 12th century to the 19th century, the Yellow River transformed flowing to the south, silting up the waterway of the Huaihe River into the sea, so that the Huaihe River often flooded, especially in 1938, when Chiang Kai-shek's bandit gang broke the embankment of the Yellow River, causing the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River to flow. The river was damaged more seriously, resulting in heavy rain and major disasters, light rain and minor disasters, and no rain and drought disasters in the area. Thousands of people have been in the abyss of suffering for many years."