Severe water shortages in north China will be alleviated by a new water conservancy project which will involve the construction of three canals to divert water from China's Yangtze River.
Above all, water shortages in urban areas must be addressed, said Zhang Jiyao, vice minister of Water Resources. Zhang said the State Council, China's highest governing body, has approved the overall plan, which envisages the diversion of water from the Yangtze to arid northern Chinese regions.
Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu provinces will all benefit from the project.
The north-south water diversion project requires the construction of three canals, namely the eastern, central and western canals. Once completed, it will be the world's largest water conservancy project.
The initial work will focus on building the eastern and central canals to facilitate water diversion from the Yangtze in the south to Chinese regions in the north. Construction of the eastern canal will get underway later this year, according to the vice minister.
Water resources are unevenly distributed in China, with the southern regions much richer than those in the north.
Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu provinces are located in the valleys of the Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe rivers, where are China's important grain and cotton production bases. The region, however, has only 7.2 percent of the country's water resources. Per capita water resources in these regions stands at 462 cubic meters, one fifth of the national average.
The water shortage in the Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe river valleys is estimated to be between 14.5 billion and 21 billion cubic meters at present, and this figure is expected to reach 28 billion cubic meters by 2010 and between 32 billion cubic meters and 39.5 billion cubic meters by 2030, according to a research report.
The long-term droughts and water shortages have led to over-use of the underground water, which has, in turn, given rise to a number of ecological and environmental problems such as the destruction of wetlands, the drying-up of rivers, land desertification and sinking ground.
According to Zhang, the eastern and central canals will take five to 10 years to complete, and will cost 154.8 billion yuan (about US$18.65 billion).
Upon completion, the two canals will supply an additional 13.4 billion cubic meters of water to north China.
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2002)
