The first phase of the eastern route of the national South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) in Shandong Province is under way, with six of the 11 single projects are under construction.

China is expected to spend 1.27 billion yuan to boost construction of the Shandong Section on water control and inspection of Nansi Lake, along with the project through the Yellow River, according to the Shandong South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Management Bureau.

The first phase of the eastern route of the national South-to-North Water Diversion Project in Shandong Province is under way, with six of the 11 single projects are under construction.

Overall investment of the Shandong Section is expected to reach 17 billion yuan. Over 7.2 billion yuan has been endorsed so far, of which 3.86 billion yuan has been used

The prophase work of five other independent projects and affiliated projects are also under construction.

A brief introduction of the East Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

The East Route of the SNWD project is based on the existing North Jiangsu Water Diversion Project. Water will be pumped from pumping stations near Yangzhou in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, then through the Jiang-Hang Grand Canal and its parallel river channels as the main or branch canals to the North China Plain. The canals will link the storage reservoirs of Hongze Lake, Luoma Lake, Nansi Lake and Dongping Lake, cross the Yellow River through tunnels to the newly-built Weilin Canal to Weiyun Canal and Nanyun Canal, and finally reach Tianjing.

The main water supply line is 1150 km long, of which 660 km runs south of the Yellow River, while north of the Yellow River the line is 490 km in length. Nearly 90% of the water transfer canals are existing river channels or lakes.

In an effort to resolve the serious water shortage problem in Shandong Peninsula, water will be diverted from Dongping Lake to the cities of Jinan, Yantai and Weihai to build a 696 km long water-guiding channel.

The highest place in the East Route Scheme is Dongping Lake, about 40 meters higher than the water level of the Yangtze River. Plans have been made for 75 pumping stations in 13 cascades to be built, with a total lift of close to 65 meters. After completion, water will flow to Tianjin by gravity after it crosses the Yellow River.

Since many existing river channels and lakes are used by the East Route Scheme and the water quality of these rivers and lakes are not up to standard, water pollution control is of the upmost importance. Construction of 135 sewage treatment plants and 33 pollution control or diversion works are in the planning stages, as well as industrial structure adjustment for 38 plants. The initiation of 150 industrial pollution control projects and 13 watershed pollution control projects in the project area are also in the works.

The water supply scope of the East Route Scheme covers the eastern part of Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and Shandong Peninsula. The target of the water supply is to mainly satisfy domestic and industrial water needs, followed by water for irrigation, navigation and environment. It will be able to transfer 14.8 billion m3/yr of water..

Construction of the scheme is being divided into three stages. The first stage is to complete the water supply transfer to Shandong and Jiangsu Provinces. The planned annual water diversion is 8.9 million m3/yr, excluding the capacity of the existing project; the newly-increased water supply is 3.9 billion m3/yr. The other element of the project is to complete pollution control and pollution intercept and discharge projects so as to ensure that water quality meets class-III of national surface water standards.

(China?Daily?June 4, 2009)