Massive water diversion project poses environmental dilemma(5)

As the deadline for the transfer draws near, efforts to maintain water safety standards are becoming more urgent, with authorities struggling to ensure that water quality does not decline before 2014.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, has approved a funding package worth 12 billion yuan to boost efforts to treat pollution in the Danjiangkou Reservoir and its upper reaches from 2011-2015. Included are plans to build pollution control facilities in most towns bordering the reservoir in the provinces of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi.

But some officials have warned that local debts may pile up as cash-strapped local governments find they have to bear part of the expense of the new projects.

A group of experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the headwater regions should be compensated not only for the cost of pollution control, water and soil conservation and reservoir immigration, but also for the economic opportunities they have had to forego.

They added that more preferential policies and technological support are needed to encourage these regions to change people's way of life and mode of production.

"It is impossible to alleviate mass poverty and protect the environment at the same time if most people earn their living from traditional farming," said He Jiali, an economics professor with Ankang University in Shaanxi. "The headwater regions need to shift their focus to ecological agriculture and environmentally-friendly industries."

"Protecting the green mountains and clear water is one thing," said Fang Weifeng, Party chief of Ankang City, "but we still have to eat, live and develop."

"People here have a strong desire to develop the local economy. They don't want to rely on compensation handouts. A population of 10 million is a big responsibility," he said.