Western media 'did not get facts straight'

A senior official of China's south-to-north water diversion project said that the project has been providing substantial clean water, countering some Western media reports.

E Jingping, the director of the south-to-north water diversion project's construction commission office, said at a Wednesday briefing on the project that the State Council's policies are transparent.

"Some areas in northern China suffer from an acute water shortage. The project diverts precious water resources to those areas which allow the public to enjoy quality water and prevent the environment from getting worse. Is it not a good thing?" E said. "Why should authorities cover it up?"

Some Western media have previously reported that the water was barely usable when it reached Tianjin as it was affected by polluted soil along the way.

E said that the project has never been planned to bring water to the industrial base in Northeast China. "When these Western media made such accusations, they did not get the facts straight."

E added that a water quality supervision system has been established, covering 43 counties and over 1,000 polluting enterprises have been wiped out.

China's south-to-north water diversion project, which aims to alleviate water shortages in the north, is pattered after similar projects in other countries, according to E.

Similar to practices in other countries, the price for the use of the water covers construction and maintenance costs, E said, adding that China has also learned from other countries in managing the ecology during the diversion. "For example, Germany strictly supervises the water flow of rivers," he said.

Some 345,000 residents in the Danjiangkou reservoir area, the central line's water source, have been relocated and have received compensation 16 times the average annual output of their land within three years prior to the expropriation.

Yuan Songling, the director for the project's resettlement office, said that migrants in previous construction projects can only receive compensation equivalent to eight to 10 times the average annual cultivation output.

Water started to flow along the central line of the country's water diversion project, transfer water from the Hanjiang River, the largest tributary of the Yangtze River. Beijing has already received over 20 million cubic meters of water through the project.

A tunnel carrying some of the water diverted from the Yangtze River in the south to quench Beijing's perennial thirst in the north will soon be completed, the Xinhua News Agency reported.