Water diversion benefits over 11 mln people in Beijing

BEIJING -- China's south-to-north water diversion project has benefited more than 11 million people in Beijing, authorities said Tuesday.

Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the middle route, which, in the past two years, has pumped 1.94 billion cubic meters of water into Beijing, according to the project office.

More than 1.3 billion cubic meters went to water supply companies in the municipality, 280 million cubic meters was stored in reservoirs, and the rest was used as groundwater, river and lake supplies in downtown areas, said office director Sun Guosheng.

Currently, daily waterflow to Beijing from the project is about 3.4 million cubic meters.

"The water diversion has relieved the pressure on Beijing's water supply," Sun said.

Before the diversion, Beijing's water sources, mainly from underground, were susceptible to incrustation from calcium and magnesium salts.

The middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project carries 9.5 billion cubic meters of water each year through canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou reservoir in central China's Hubei Province to the provinces of Henan and Hebei as well as Beijing.

The water transfer project was conceived by Mao Zedong in 1952. The State Council approved the project in December 2002 after nearly half a century of debate.