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Water diversion project highlighted
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CHINA vows to launch a multi-billion-dollar project to divert water from southern China to quench the thirst of north China during the Tenth Five-Year Plan Period (2001-2005).
The project has three routes --- east, central and west. Upon completion, a total of 38 billion to 48 billion cubic metres of water will be channelled into north China through the three courses annually.
At present, China has had the conditions for constructing the eastern and central routes, 1,150 and 1,246 kilometres long respectively. The third route still needs further research, government officials said.
Water shortages
In China, water is short not only in landlocked areas, but also in some coastal regions. A recent survey shows that 400 out of 600 major Chinese cities are suffering from acute water shortages, which cause economic losses amounting to more than 120 billion yuan (US$14.4 billion) annually.
In the government work report delivered to the annual NPC session on Monday, Premier Zhu Rongji said China needed to expedite projects to divert water from the south to the north. “Water shortage is a factor that has seriously held back our economic and social development," Zhu said.
Water resources are quite unevenly distributed in China, with about 81 per cent concentrated on southern China and 19 per cent available in northern China.
Often, the people were watching helplessly the Yellow River in north China running dry and their crops withering while their countrymen along the Yangtze River were fighting to save their homes and crops from sweeping floods, said Zhu Zuoyan, vice-chairman of the China National Natural Foundation and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Water is of vital importance, he said. It has a direct bearing on the very survival and development of the Chinese nation. Although China ranks 6th in water supply in the world, it has become meager when coming to the per capita basis.
Although people in southern China suffer less from water shortages, they are plagued by water pollution just the same as their countrymen in the north.
Rampant felling of trees, overpopulation and headlong race for industrial development have not only drained wells and springs, but also victimized the majority of lakes and rivers.
Pollution is now spreading from cities to the countryside and from coastal areas to landlocked regions. In many places, even groundwater is not spared.
Wang Jirong, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, warned that water in the south should first be well treated before being diverted to the north.
First proposed by the late Chairman Mao Zedong in 1953, the project has been the subject of studies and research but lack of money and technical skills prevented it from progressing beyond the planning stage.(SD-Xinhua)
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