South-to-North Water Diversion east/middle lines to flow water in 2007/10

Zhang Jiyao, director of the Construction Committee Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion project, declared Tuesday that according to the Master Plan of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project approved by the State Council and considering the severe water resource shortages in the Yellow and Huihe rivers the phase-one project of the South-to-North east line would flow water in 2007. It would supply water mainly to Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. The phase-one project of the middle line would flow water in 2010. By then waters in the Yangtze River could be diverted into Beijing.

At the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Office Director's Meeting held on Tuesday in Beijing Zhang Jiyao said construction of the whole project is progressing smoothly. Investments in the Jiangsu Sanyanghe-Tonghe-Baoying station project and Shandong Jipingganqu project in the east line has completed 74.7 percent and 52 percent respectively since the projects started. The Yongding River Inverted Siphon project and Hebei Hutuo River Inverted Siphon project in the middle line have completed 47.3 percent and 30.5 percent of the budgetary estimate investments respectively. During the construction the central government and local management institutions conscientiously carried out construction procedures; enhanced the supervision and management of project time limits, quality and fund use; provided quality that met the design requirement; met generally the standard of fund use management. All started projects are expected to achieve construction objectives according to schedule or in advance of schedule.

Zhang Jiyao said the relevant departments should earnestly carry out various preparation works to make sure the preparation works meet the needs of construction progress; press on with the research and demonstration work on the contingent Beijing/Tianjin water supply solution; speed up the design and examination work on the Danjiangkou Dam enhancement project so as to start construction on these projects as soon as possible. In the meantime demonstration and examination on the project proposals and feasibility study reports of the east line and middle line projects should be sped up and good job should be done on the demonstration and comparison of the west line project solutions.

Construction on the phase-one projects of the Sourth-to-North east line and middle line officially started on December 27, 2002 and December 30, 2003 respectively. According to plan the east, middle and west lines would connect the Yangtze, Huaihe, Yellow and Haihe rivers once they are finished and would form a new general pattern of water resources in China. According to plan the perennial average water diversion of the three lines could reach 44.8 billion cubic meters, of which the east line would account for 14.8 billion cubic meters, middle line for 13 billion cubic meters and west line for 17 billion cubic meters. The construction would probably take 40 to 50 years to complete.

By People's Daily Online