His father, hospitalized for weeks, longed to see him. People suffer too much from the bitter water, he told his family, and he needed to help bring it to an end.

Liu quickly returned to the project sites, monitoring progress day and night. Days later during a test, a water leakage was found at a station in Kizkant village of the neighboring Tokuzak county. When he directed the installation of new pumps and pipes, it was 4 in the morning. He led his colleagues on to the next station against freezing wind, without a moment's rest for the whole night.

At one point, while coordinating a team of engineers and construction workers, he suddenly blacked out and collapsed. When he regained consciousness, Liu brushed off the incident and headed back to work. Soon, however, he lost the vision in his left eye.

Xie Chengxin, a doctor in charge of treating Liu, says that his treatment was fair in 2017 and reasonable in following months. But, his busy schedule had kept him from getting sufficient rest and recuperation and he had failed to get proper treatment. "His treatment was significantly delayed," Xie says.

On May 26 last year, however, the good news, literally, flowed through Jiashi. Safe potable water, traveling along 112 km of trunk conduit and 167 km of branch channels, reached more than 100,000 families in the county via 1,548 km of distribution pipes.

"Sweet water has arrived!" the villagers in Jiashi kept telling each other.

"No matter how busy I was, I am happy," a village Party official named Kurax Kawul, who helped renovate pipelines and equip water outlets, exclaims. "This time, this is really healthy water! A new beautiful life dawns on us."

With Liu's guidance and supervision, the project was finished one month ahead of schedule, which had already been squeezed to about a year from the three-year norm for such an endeavor.

"The hopes of generations of locals to drink safe water have been fulfilled in our time," he says. "How proud we are!"

A month later, the last groups of people in Sichuan finally began to receive clean, healthy water, marking an end to thousands of years of difficulty.

Meanwhile, the cancer cells again sent Liu to the sick bed. "I have no regrets in this life," he told his family. "All my work is worthwhile."

Liu was admitted to hospital again in September 2020, but this time, he had become paralyzed, before losing his speech in early March. "The cancer cells had spread and metastasized to the bone marrow," explains Xie, who is involved in Liu's ongoing phase-four chemotherapy.

Ani Mehmet from Olturgulluk village was in tears when visiting Liu in the hospital. "You helped us to get healthy and clean tap water, and solved my son's tuition problems, but you exhausted yourself too much," the villager said.

On Feb 25, on his bed in an ICU ward and with the help of his brother, on a mobile phone Liu watched a live broadcast of a grand gathering at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, during which awards were granted to role models in the fight against poverty. When Liu heard President Xi Jinping mention his name for the honor, his lips trembled and tears rolled down his cheeks.

Contact the writers at [email protected]