Water from Yangtze not enough to quench Beijing’s thirst  

10亿方江水难解北京之渴 缺口仍达15亿立方米

今年10月，江水初进京。年10.5亿立方米的接收量，将显著提高北京供水安全保障程度。那么，对于北京来讲，是否节水不再需要、可以大手大脚用水了呢？“当然不行，北京依然很渴，节水一定要进行到底！”市水务局相关负责人斩钉截铁地说。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- An official at the Beijing Water Authority said on Thursday that the project to divert water from the Yangtze River to Beijing can improve the capital's water security, but it won't solve the problem of water scarcity, as the city faces a water shortage of 1.5 billion cubic meters, the Beijing Youth Daily observed on Thursday.

According to the water-transfer project, a total of 1.05 billion cubic meters of water from the Yangtze River will be channeled to Beijing every year starting from October 2014, which will help relieve Beijing's water shortage. However, the program is far from enough to solve the water scarcity crisis.

As a megacity that has continuously suffered from rainfall shortage since 1999, Beijing has no more than 100 cubic meters of water for each of its inhabitants a year.

Statistics show that the capital's annual average volume of water consumption stands at 3.6 billion cubic meters, while only a total of 2.1 billion cubic meters of water resources can be mustered every year.