A man-made watercourse at Tuancheng Lake in Beijing as first flow from the South-to-North Water Diversion Project reaches China's capital on Saturday. (Photo: Cui Meng/GT)
China's south-to-north water diversion project has supplied 3.45 million cubic meters of water daily to Beijing so far this year, 24 percent more than the daily volume over the same period in 2015, helping to alleviate pressure on the capital's water supply during peak usage in summer.
The daily volume of water that the project brought to Beijing increased from 2.78 million cubic meters in 2015 to 3.45 million cubic meters over the same period in 2016, the Beijing Daily reported Sunday. A total of 1.5 billion cubic meters of water has now been transferred to the city since the project was first launched in December 2014.
With the help of the project, Beijing's daily water supply has increased to 3.72 million cubic meters, enough to meet citizens' needs during the peak demand in summer, an official from Beijing Water Authority told the Beijing Daily.
However, the project has not been able to completely solve Beijing's water shortage, so the city is facilitating more projects to ensure a sufficient water supply, including promoting the usage of reprocessed waste water, said the official, who also appealed to citizens to save water.
The south-to-north water diversion project draws water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, and reroutes it along eastern, middle and western routes to supply dry areas in the north. The diversion project now provides 70 percent of Beijing's water supply.
According to the project's construction committee, more than 200 million cubic meters of water diverted from the south has been stored in Beijing's four reservoirs, including the Miyun Reservoir, Beijing's largest, according to the Beijing Daily.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the project is the world's largest of its kind at an estimated cost of 500 billion yuan ($77.4 billion). It was officially approved by the State Council in 2002.
