Water diversion project to promote balanced development

Yan Peihong, a resident of Cangzhou, a northern city known for its aridness, has been paying close attention to the construction of China's south-north water diversion project.

Drinking water in parts of Cangzhou in Hebei Province is labeled "bitter-salty" for its bad taste. Some local residents have been suffering from dental fluorosis because water supplies there contain excessive fluoride.

The water heater Yan bought two years ago is losing its effect, for the inside of the tank is coated with two centimeters of limescale.

"Hopefully, the water diverted from the Yangtze River will help change this situation," he says.

Yan's dream is coming true, as the construction of the main part of the eastern route of the south-north water diversion project that covers Cangzhou is set to be completed this month.

The south-north project, the world's largest of its kind, is designed to take water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, through an eastern, a middle and a western route to feed arid areas in the north, including Beijing.

The project started with the construction of the eastern route in 2002, and the route is expected to come into service next year. With construction of the middle route having begun in 2003, it is expected to start supplying water in 2014.

The major projects of the eastern route are located in the provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong. Statistics from the construction departments of the two provinces show that there should be no problem in finishing the main work on the route within December.

By the end of November, investment in the Shandong part of the project had reached 20.867 billion yuan (3.347 billion U. S. dollars), which is over 95 percent of the total investment, says Sun Yifu, deputy water resources chief in Shandong Province.

Correspondingly, investment in the Jiangsu section reached 11.2 billion yuan, making up 92 percent of the approved total investment, according to Lu Zhenlin, director of Jiangsu's water resources department.

Progress has also been witnessed in work to improve the water quality on the eastern route. More than 400 pollution control projects in the two provinces have been completed and the water quality along the route has met targeted levels.

Weishan Lake, which stretches across Shandong and Jiangsu, is the most important reservoir on the eastern route. Shi Jifen, a 53-year-old fisherman on the lake, says recent times have seen none of the mass deaths of fish from water pollution that used to plague his trade.

"In the past, fishermen here would have to take their cages somewhere else when the dirty water flew from the factories in the upper reaches," Shi explains.

For draught-prone northern areas, the completion of the project is expected to lubricate economic development by means of alleviating the problem of water shortage.

Wei Zhimin, expert from the water resources department of Hebei Province, says the self-produced and the inflow water resources of the province have been reduced by 58 and 77 percent respectively from those of the 1950s, while Hebei's water consumption has grown from 4 billion cubic meters to more than 20 billion cubic meters.

The disparity has led to the drying up of local rivers and lakes, the degeneration of wetlands and ground subsidence caused by over-pumping of groundwater.

However, Hebei is an important water source for Beijing. The level of Beijing's groundwater is 25 meters minus, compared to a normal level of one to five meters, and it is still dropping by 1.3 meters per year.

According to Yin Guangjun, a National People's Congress deputy, the severe water shortage is not only an agricultural and economic issue, but an ecological and social one which is key to future development and human survival.

The water diversion project was first conceived by former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1952 and the State Council, or China's Cabinet, approved the ambitious project in December 2002.

It is expected to divert 44.8 billion cubic meters water annually from the Yangtze River to the north.

Zhang Ye, an official of the State Council, believes the eastern and middle routes will directly benefit 110 million people and 253 cities including Beijing, Tianjin and Jinan, providing opportunities for the cities' economic restructuring.

Additionally, the project will fuel China's economic growth by 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points per year and create 500,000 to 600,000 jobs, according to Zhang.

Huang Shao'an, a professor at Shandong University, says the completion of the main part of the eastern route will promote the optimal allocation of water resources among areas and inject vitality to development of the country's northern regions.

Chang Xiuze, an expert with the National Development and Reform Commission, adds that the eastern route runs through several important economic areas such as the Shandong Peninsula and the Yangtze River Delta, and the water supply will promote balanced development among regions.