Rivers bring livelihood to workers in central China

Li Shichao, a native of Wuhan on the Yangtze River in Hubei province, has always been fond of water and ships. On World Water Day, observed annually on March 22, he sat in front of monitors watching vessels pass through the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project. For him, it was just another Tuesday.

The theme of this year's World Water Day was water and jobs. According to the United Nations, 1.5 billion people work in water-related sectors.

Li, a vessel dispatcher, is one of them. After graduating in 2014 from the Navigation School of Wuhan University of Technology, the 27-year-old started working at the Three Gorges Dam as a dispatcher, responsible for planning lockage, sending directives and monitoring.