Editor's note: As protection of the planet's flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's commitment to safeguarding the natural world.

For generations, farmers in the Bingjian irrigation area in Yunnan province's Yuanmou county had to perform a laborious irrigation ballet, a delicate dance of cooperation and shared sacrifice heavily reliant on two reservoirs.

Every 15 to 20 days during the irrigation seasons, the reservoirs' sluice gates would open, bringing a sigh of relief to the farmers of the 7,600 hectares of farmland in the area, where the evaporation rate is six times that of rainfall. The water release, however, would only last for a week, forcing farmers to race against time to irrigate in turn, remaining ever vigilant against water theft.

"My family would join seven or eight other households to apply for permission to take water," said Liu Xianhua, a 41-year-old farmer from Yuelinglong village. Then, while one household irrigated, the others guarded the channels to prevent unauthorized withdrawals."

Farmers usually bought a permit to divert water into their farmland for a certain period of time, paying based on the time span and water velocity.

The mission of irrigating the farmlands for all the families was often a tiring and sleepless operation that stretched for a whole day and sometimes even longer, Liu said.

But now they have been unshackled from the tyranny of the shared water schedule, and are free to irrigate whenever their fields whisper their thirst. "With a mere swipe of a card, I can irrigate my farmland any time now," Liu smiled.

The change has come about as a result of a public-private partnership irrigation project, initiated in 2016 and put into operation in 2018.