The Water Diversion Project

The Water Diversion Project

One of the basic characteristics of water distribution in China is that there is a deluge of water in the south and a deficiency in the north. To ease the water shortage in the north, the Chinese Government has decided to divert water from the south.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is divided into three projects: the western route project, the middle route project and the eastern route project, which will divert water from the upper reaches, middle reaches and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, respectively, to northwest and north China.

The eastern route project—1,857 km—will be constructed in three stages to divert water from Jiangdu and Yangzhou on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the Tianjin Municipality, as well as Jinan, Yantai and Weihai in Shandong Province.

The middle route project—1,431.95 km—will be constructed in two stages to divert water from Danjiangkou Reservoir to Beijing and Tianjin.

The western route project will be constructed in three stages to divert water from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River by building dams on the Tongtian River on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and two branches of the Yangtze River: Yalong River and Dadu River. The project is designed to ease water shortage in six provinces and autonomous regions on the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, including Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi.

At present, the first stages of the eastern and middle route projects are in progress. The first stage of the eastern route project will divert water from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to Dongping Lake of Shandong Province, which is scheduled to be completed in 2013. The first stage of the middle route project will be completed in 2014, comprising a water source and water diversion trunk line project, a harness project for the Hanjiang River and the Danjiangkou Reservoir transformation project.

The western route project is still in the design and appraisal phase.

(Source: www.nsbd.gov.cn)