Water defenders(2)

Regulators have also installed 27 unmanned monitoring stations along the route which automatically relay data every four hours and send out an alert when pollution is detected.

For emergency situations, such as a sudden surge of water pollution, the emergency mobile monitoring vehicle can provide relevant data within minutes.

To deal with such emergency cases, authorities have also built three major cut-off stations that can prevent polluted waters from flowing ahead.

Money flow

Concerns over water quality from the Danjiangkou Reservoir arose following a CCTV report about the influx of polluted water into the reservoir.

"We have taken actions against this issue to turn this crisis into an opportunity to improve infrastructure," said Shen Xueqiang, vice-mayor of Shiyan, Hubei Province.

Hundreds of millions of yuan have been poured into solving the pollution issue. According to a report by the People's Daily, more than 1,000 factories located near the water source in Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces have been closed. The Chinese government has also devoted 12 million yuan to 445 projects aiming to clean the water, including sewage plants built in 43 counties near the Danjiangkou Reservoir.

Fully-sealed pipes built underground are being used to prevent pollutants from contaminating the water as it travels through the densely-populated city.

"With these measures, I am confident that pollutants will not enter the water along the route," Shi assured.

Laying pipe

During initial tests of the water transfer system in 2008, some Beijing households reported getting brownish-colored water from their taps.

Water experts later found that the acid-base balance was thrown off when the incoming water from Hebei mixed with Beijing water. This led to a sudden spike in water acidity and eroded the rust in aging pipes, which dissolved into the water.

"Partial and short-term 'brown water' is unavoidable. But we have done enough preparation to prevent it on a large scale," said Hu Bo, director of water supply with the Beijing Water Authority.

To remedy the issue, Beijing's water authorities replaced old pipes along major ring roads and connecting routes. For pipes that cannot be replaced due to technical limitations, the Beijing Waterworks Group cleaned them of rust and residue with an anti-corrosion spray.

The Guogongzhuang water plant, a facility specially built to treat water transported from the south, is now on line, Beijing Waterworks Group announced on October 10.

The plant's first phase, costing 3.5 billion yuan, will eventually produce 500,000 cubic meters a day, enough for 5 million people.

The new plant boasts world-class filter and sterilization technologies to ensure higher water quality. The systems are also capable of dealing with concentrations of polluted water, the water group said.

The transported water will gradually replace groundwater reserves to become Beijing's main source of drinking water, alleviating pressure on the city's dwindling native water levels.

About 40 percent of Beijing's drinking water now comes from underground sources, which is notoriously hard and not fit for direct consumption. The Beijing Waterworks Group has claimed on various occasions that the water treated by the company meets national standards.