Four reservoirs in Hebei province will be used to ensure sufficient supplies to Beijing during the Olympics, the capital's water authority said yesterday.

About 300 million cu m of water from the reservoirs will be diverted via the Beijing section of the ongoing national South-to-North water diversion project from the end of this month.

The move will help the capital realize a unified and balanced supply of surface, ground and diverted water to better plug its water shortage, Jiao Zhizhong, director of the water authority, said.

The water from Hebei will be used as emergency supplies during the Games, Jiao said.

The capital has been plagued by water shortages partly due to its geography, with a nine-year consecutive drought from 1999 to last year seeing only 75 percent of precipitation compared with other years and exacerbating the problem, officials said.

Part of the main South-to-North water project, the construction of the Beijing section - with a length of more than 300 km, crossing four rivers, 23 roads and railways, 23 bridges and taking more than four years - has been "arduous and massive", Jiao said.

Much effort has been made on water conservation, including expanding the use of recycled water for irrigation, improving industrial water-saving technology, and enforcing the strict management of water use, he said.

This year, authorities have said they will provide free water-saving equipment to 30,000 low-income families.

"Through our efforts, water consumption decreased from 4.1 billion cu m in 1999 to 3.48 billion cu m last year, despite the fact that demand for water has been rising with the development of industry and agriculture and population increase," Yu Yaping, an official from the water authority, said.

"Water supply during the Olympics will be raised to ensure there is no disruption," he said.

Daily water supply could rise from the current 2.65 million cu m to 2.95 million cu m, he said.

In 2002, China approved the South-to-North water diversion project aimed at relieving water shortages in arid northern areas. The project will divert water from the Yangtze, the country's longest river, to the north.

According to the South-to-North water diversion office, when part of the project is completed in 2010, about 1 billion cu m of water will be diverted to the capital every year.

(China Daily March 4, 2008)