Thursday, February 3, 2011

South-to-north water diversion project

 

Please note: "The western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is still in the planning stage."
Thus spoke The People's Daily.
The Western route will take waters from the Brahmaputra (and the Yangtze) to divert them towards the Yellow River. It is still at a 'planning' stage because it will have serious political and strategic implications with China's neighbours. 
See my article in The Indian Defence Review on the subject.


China's investment on south-to-north water diversion project hit 115 bln yuan
English.news.cn
011-01-24
BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- China has invested 115 billion yuan (17.45 billion U.S. dollars) on the South-to-North Water Diversion Project as of the end of last year, a senior official said Monday.
E Jingping, director of the Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Commission (SNWDPC) of the State Council, said construction on 40 projects began last year, marking a new annual record.
No major accidents happened while constructing the projects last year, E said.
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is designed to divert water from the water-rich south of China, mainly the Yangtze, the country's longest river, to the country's arid northern regions. It will consist of three routes: an eastern, middle and western route. The project started with construction of the eastern route in 2002.
Up until now, both of the eastern and middle routes were already under construction. The western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is still in the planning stage.
About 330,000 people in Hubei and Henan Provinces will be relocated before the middle route is completed in 2014.
Editor: yan

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How creative are the Chinese? I have visited China on four occasions and never cease to wonder at their engineering feats. Even in ancient times they were redirecting rivers and this work continues. We in Australia certainly don't have the might of China's work force but by comparison, we continue to postpone the Bradfield Scheme which would allow more water to flow to the south. Why don't we invite the Chinese to complte this project in exchange for access to the arable land it would create and the resultant food bowls? Paul Goode