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Engineer's Dedication to Work Leaves Many Moved

Source:chinadaily.com.cn Published:2019-12-30 13:45

File photo of Chen Jianguo (L). [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

An engineer working on the South-to-North Water Diversion Project brought his sick father to his workplace after his mother and brother died while he was on work.

Chen Jianguo said he felt sad he wasn't with his family when the tragedies occured. But he didn't regret his choice of sticking to his work because the project was important one, a once-in-a-century project, and no delay or error should derail it.

At that time he was responsible for part of the middle route of the project in Nanyang city of Henan province. The route aimed to divert water from Danjiangkou reservoir in Hubei province through Henan province to Beijing.

His team's work was to build a 7.55-kilometers-long canal of the 1,432 kilometers long route.

Chen, who graduated from Henan Water Conservancy and Hydropower School, was designated by the provincial water resources bureau as the project manger of this part in February 2011.

"When the diversion project started in 2002, I was dreaming that one day I could be one of its builders. So when I take on the task, my dream came true and I felt extremely honored to build such a national project," Chen said.

However, his elder brother and mother got seriously ill after he began working on the project.

As the project had just started and needed more preparation, Chen decided not to go back home to take care of his brother or mother in hospital and stayed at his work. However, a month later in March 2011, his elder brother died of uraemia and in April, his mother died of myocardial infarction, leaving Chen's father unattended with diabetes.

"I was suffering and feeling guilty about not seeing them before they died. But the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is a national and great task that will influence generations and it can't have any minor error," he said.

Chen's mother, who used to be a village official and a Communist Party member, had always told him to put work before family.

Chen's father, who was then 76, had diabetes and heart disease and could not live by himself so Chen took him to his workplace and recommended him as the security guard of the construction site until 2014 when the middle route was put into use.

His story was widely spread by the media afterwards and he received labor medal issued by All-China Federation of Trade Unions in 2014.

"I just wanted to express my emotions by crying after it was finished. And I have poured some water that flowed through my canal into my mother's graveyard and let her taste whether the water, her son's labor result, was sweet or not," Chen said.

Editor:Zhao Xichen