China's Water Transportation Infrastructure

Middle Route of South-to-North Water Diversion to Provide Water To North By the End of October

The middle section of China's South-to-North Water Diversion project will be operational by the end of October. The massive engineering project diverts water from the country's south where water is abundant, to the more arid northern provinces.

Water from the Yangtze River is about to flow into Beijing. 500,000 cubic meters of water will be supplied daily, which will meet the demand of nearly FIVE million residents in the capital.

Engineers have built five water storage plants to serve the middle route of the water diversion project. It all starts at the Dan-jiang-kou Reservoir in Central Hubei Province, before travelling north. Hebei and Henan provinces, as well as Tianjin Municipality will also be provided with water along with Beijing.

To divert the water to more densely populated areas and farmland, Hebei Province is building four major diversion channels, which will cover at least several dozen counties.

"80% of the diversion channels have already been completed. The whole project will be completed before next year's flood season. That means 45 million residents in Hebei will be able to have high quality drinking water." said Yuan Fu, Director, Hebei Water Diversion Construction Committee.

The middle route, which stretches over 1,200 kilometers northward, has been under construction for 11 years.

The project could have been completed four years earlier, but strict government regulations to ensure environmental protection slowed construction work significantly.

Industries and factories have also been prohibited from being built along the route and reservoirs to ensure the safety of the drinking water.

The idea of diverting water from the south to the north was brought up by late Chairman Mao Zedong in 1952.

Source: CCTV

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