China-India border dispute: PLA troops feel the heat … of a nice warm shower
- Freshwater wells and solar-powered heating systems are making life a little more bearable for Chinese soldiers on a freezing front line
- Improvements made possible thanks to a slew of new technologies, including seismic prospecting and satellite remote sensing to locate underground water sources, military newspaper says
In the past, the only way the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could get water to its frontline troops in the Himalayas was by hauling it in tanker trucks from nearby rivers and townships, often many kilometres away. But once the winter arrived, even that was not an option, and the troops had no choice but to ration their supplies and wait for the spring thaw.
But thanks to the creation of 13 new wells – sunk at altitudes of between 4,000 and 5,000 metres (13,000-16,000 feet) – and the installation of a network of solar panels, PLA personnel have never had it so good.
According to a report published on Thursday by PLA Daily, the military’s official newspaper, at one air force radar station 4,900 metres up a mountainside in Tibet – where the annual average temperature is minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) – troops now have access to hot running water round the clock.
The luxury of a warming shower did not come without a cost, however. The report said it took troops many months to dig the 200-metre well that now supplies their water and install the solar panels needed to heat it.
The creation of the 13 wells in such a hostile environment was made possible thanks to a slew of new technologies, the newspaper report said.