South China's Guangdong Province is planning to divert more water resources in the western and northern parts of the province to the Pearl River Delta in the following months as part of a province-wide conservation effort.

"The water diversion project is expected to help Guangdong develop its water resources and put the limited resources into more rational use," according to Xue Jianjun, an official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Water Conservation.

Water conservation departments in cities across the province are now busy doing the preliminary work for the project, Xue said.

More water channels will soon be constructed or expanded in some areas in the future for the project, he added.

The water diversion project was planned after the province experienced its worst drought in 55 years last winter and autumn.

More than 20 million residents in the province were affected by the drought.

Guangdong, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, has an advanced inland river network.

The Pearl River, a major river in the country, and its tributaries run through major cities in the Pearl River Delta region.

The project is meant to help divert the rich water resources in Xijiang River, the major tributary of the Pearl River in the western part of Guangdong, to the Pearl River Delta, in order to supply enough water to the prosperous cities in the region, Xue said.

"Located in the upper reaches of the Xijiang River and other Pearl River tributaries, many large and middle-sized reservoirs have abundant water reserves," Xue added.

Affected by the drought and salt tide, more than 2.5 million people lacked drinking water while many domestic animals were reported to have been killed by the disaster last year.

The salt tide, which occurs when seawater floods coastal areas because of serious drought, struck major cities in the Pearl River Delta and affected more than 15 million people in the province.

Guangdong experienced the worst salt tide in the past 20 years.

The cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Dongguan and Foshan in the southern part of the Pearl River Delta were the hardest hit by the salt tide in the previous year.

Many waterworks in the Pearl River Delta had to cease operation due to the severe drought and salt tide.

(China Daily September 1, 2005)