On June 30, 2025, the Zhuoer-Xiliao River Water Diversion Project, the largest-scale water conservancy project ever undertaken in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, achieved successful trial water delivery across its full length.
Identified by the State Council as one of the 172 major water-saving and water-supply water conservancy projects during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the Zhuoer Xiliao River Water Diversion Project ranks as Inner Mongolia’s No.1 water conservancy project and forms a backbone component of the national water network. Its construction mission is to divert water from the Zhuoer River to the Xiliao River, supplying water to cities and industrial parks along the route while realizing comprehensive utilization including irrigation and power generation. The total length of the water conveyance route is 390.3 kilometers.
Watching surging blue water rush forward, cutting through mountains and traversing vast grasslands, the Zhuoer River and the Xiliao River accomplish their momentous “connection” under bright sunshine. The strenuous efforts and perseverance of nearly 30,000 builders constitute individual pixels of this grand panorama. Within dim tunnels and deep-buried pipelines, technical staff from Headwaters quietly deliver expertise in online water-flow monitoring.
Hundreds of waveform-recognition ultrasonic flowmeters supplied by Headwaters have been deployed throughout the Zhuoer Xiliao River Water Diversion Project, accounting for 100 % of all flowmeters in its Phase-I works. Tailoring installation schemes to on-site operating conditions, Headwaters technicians strove for excellence to guarantee installation quality. Multi-channel flush-mounted configurations were adopted inside tunnels, while multi-channel externally-inserted installations were applied on pipelines, ensuring optimal equipment performance upon commissioning. Down-to-earth and hard-working, the team worked braving frigid mountain spring water soaking their bodies in summer and persisted on-site even amid harsh winter temperatures as low as -20 °C. While everything lay dormant across the wind-swept Inner Mongolian grasslands, Headwaters ultrasonic flowmeters bloomed as blossoms forged from iron resolve atop icy pipelines.
All waveform-recognition ultrasonic flowmeters along the full project line are connected to the independently-developed Zhuoer-Xiliao River Diversion Online Flow-Monitoring Data Management System by Headwaters. The system covers operational data across the entire route including flow velocity, flow rate and water level, and supports functions such as hydrological-condition alarms, sedimentation monitoring and circuit-break detection. Headwaters analyzes, diagnoses and applies valid sensor-acquired data to build a visualized platform for managers to oversee project operational safety. Boasting expandability, the platform unlocks further technical possibilities for smart water conservancy development. Mass-scale data acquisition and application ignite “sparks of fire” at flow-monitoring points stretching over the 390-kilometer route.
At the end of the year on December 30, 2024, Headwaters’ technical team received a letter of appreciation from the client for their fearlessness of bitter cold and commendable work ethic. The team carried out work methodically under harsh conditions and fulfilled installation assignments with guaranteed quality and quantity. By July 2025, the project had successfully commenced water delivery. Polished transducer probes came into contact with flowing water and began high-speed data collection. Invisible data streams were captured and analysed to form a solid, reliable data foundation. We take pride in every bit of technical prowess demonstrated by Headwaters, which marks a milestone and a new starting-point for safeguarding future project operational safety and personnel safety.
