Water and Development Inseparable

Unlike the Three Gorges Dam Project – another famous water conservancy project China has built to supply power and prevent flooding – the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is designed to solve the problem of water supply in urban areas. “The direct economic benefit of the project is not as significant as that of the Three Gorges Dam Project; the diversion is meant to ease the water shortage in the vast northern areas, and its greatest contribution will therefore be to local economies. Economic development is impossible without abundant water supply,” Shen comments.

The State Council officially approved the overall planning of the project in 2002, for three routes. The Eastern Route diverts water from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the northern area defined by Tianjin, Yantai and Weihai via the existing Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and other waterways parallel to the Grand Canal. The Central Route diverts water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir to Beijing and Tianjin via a tunnel currently under construction; that route crosses the Yellow River. The Western Route diverts water from the Yangtze River into the headwater of the Yellow River by building dams and reservoirs on the Tongtian, Yalong and Dadu rivers, transferring it via a long tunnel that will cross the Bayan Har Mountains, the watershed between the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers.

Construction of the Western Route hasn’t started yet. “Whereas the Eastern and Central routes will divert water directly to cities, the Western Route will divert water into the Yellow River to solve the water shortages in places along its upper and middle reaches, including Qinghai Province, Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,” Shen explains.

According to Shen, after the three routes become fully operational, water can be diverted to the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe or Haihe rivers as needed by different regions of the country. The Eastern and Central routes principally address domestic and industrial water use in urban areas. The Eastern Route is expected to become operational by 2013, with an average annual 8.766 billion cubic meters of water being diverted to 22 prefecture-level cities and over 90 counties in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. The Central Route is expected to become operational by 2014, with an average annual 9.5 billion cubic meters of water being transferred to Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, 17 prefecture-level cities and over 100 counties in Henan and Hebei provinces.

“After the Eastern and Central routes become operational, the water shortages of the north will be basically alleviated,” concludes Shen. He points out that in the past some cities have had to cut back on agricultural water consumption to allow for domestic water use. He sees the end in sight, “But when the southern water resource is available to northern areas, the agricultural shortfall will be met. By our estimation, about 5 to 6 billion cubic meters of water will be needed to replenish water used in agriculture and ecological protection.”

Ecological and Economic Upsides

Moreover, the Eastern and Central route construction also brings ecological benefits. According to Shen, depletion of the water table is obvious due to the overexploitation of groundwater in drought-prone areas, and he offers an example, “Water is hardly ever seen while digging subway tunnels in Beijing, but the situation is quite different when digging tunnels in Guangzhou which is very rich in groundwater. “The phenomenon of a ‘big funnel’ is often found in northern China, where the aquifers easily become contaminated by surface sewage and seawater. That is a big problem. However, after the southern water is available to northern areas, groundwater overexploitation will be curbed and the underground ‘big funnel’ effect will be greatly reduced,” explains Shen.

Besides social and ecological benefits, the project will help bring new economic growth points. Statistics show that the large investment in the water transfer project is responsible for a GDP growth of 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points annually. After the water reaches the northern area, the local industrial and agricultural output value is expected to increase RMB 50 billion per year, creating new jobs for 500,000 to 600,000 people.