China has transferred 10 billion cubic meters of water from the south to the north of the country

Almaty. October 4. Silkroadnews - China has transferred 10 billion cubic meters of water from the south to the north of the country, Reuters reported.
“China has transferred 10 billion cubic meters of fresh water from the country’s south to its drought-prone north in the few years since a massive water diversion project came onstream,” the report said.
It is noted that in recent decades water supply in the north has been complicated by protracted droughts, growing population, development of agriculture and unprecedented growth in production. Realizing an ambitious project on water diversion China strives to deliver 44.8 billion cubic meters per year to the north. This will be about 7% of the volume of water consumed by the whole country in 2015.
An engineering project involving the transfer of water from the south via three main routes was discussed back in the 1950s, the agency reports.
“Along the middle route, the water pumped from the Yangtze River has gone to Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Henan and Hebei. The middle route carries water through canals, water highways and pipelines from Danjiangkou reservoir in central Hubei Province. It came into operation in late 2014. The project has supplied 2.7 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing, serving 11 million people. Currently about 70 percent of Beijing’s water supply comes from the project. Previously the city’s water supply came mainly from underground water”, the publication reads.
It is reported that Tianjin received 2.2 billion cubic meters of water, and Henan and Hebei received 3.5 billion cubic meters and 1.1 billion cubic meters, respectively.
China seeks to ensure annual water consumption below 670 billion cubic meters by 2020 as a part of efforts to ease chronic regional water shortage by reducing waste and improving resource efficiency.