China Exclusive: Beijing needs more as water diversion eases thirst

Water diverted from the Yangtze River has helped to ease the chronic water issue in Beijing over the past year, yet the city needs more amount as well as water conservation efforts to tackle the issue.

Saturday marked the first anniversary of the starting of water diversion through the middle route of the massive south-to-north water diversion project.

The project is the world's largest of its kind at an estimated cost of 500 billion yuan (77.5 billion U.S. dollars). It was officially approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, in 2002, five decades after late Chairman Mao Zedong came up with the idea.

The first phase of the middle route is designed to deliver an average of 9.5 billion cubic meters of water each year from the Danjiangkou reservoir in central China's Hubei Province to the northern provinces of Hebei and Henan as well as Beijing and Tianjin, benefiting some 100 million people.

In the first year, it diverted 2.22 billion cubic meters of water northward, and Beijing received 822 million cubic meters, or more than one third of the total, according to administration bureau of the project's middle route.

The amount is expected to reach 880 million cubic meters by the end of this year, said Sun Guosheng, director of the project's Beijing office. The diverted water provides over 60 percent of Beijing's tap water supply.

Meanwhile, per capita water resources in the city has surged from 100 cubic meters to 150 cubic meters, Sun said.

"The project has secured water resources for Beijing while protecting its underground water resources," Sun added.

Beijing relied heavily on underground water and the excessive exploitation led to decline of underground water levels and subsequent land subsidence in the past years.

By the end of November, Beijing had exploited 95 million cubic meters less underground water year on year, according to the Beijing Water Authority.

Meanwhile, authorities pumped some portion of the diverted water to several over-exploited local water sources to raise the underground water level and improve the eco-system.

As a result, Beijing has seen slower decline of underground water levels.

The underground water level in October this year was 0.33 meter lower than that of last year while that in October 2014 was 1.15 meters lower than the previous year.

The underground water must be compensated, or otherwise continuous excessive exploitation could lead to disaster, said E Jingping, director of the Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Commission

A dry climate and a large population have left Beijing with severe water shortage. On average, it needs more than 3.6 billion cubic meters of water every year, but its own water resources only amount to 2.1 billion cubic meters.

Although the city's water shortage has been greatly alleviated this year by the water diversion project, it remains one of the main factors hindering the capital's sustainable development, said Sun.

Sun said Beijing need more water from outside in the future as the population rises and city expands.

Xu Xinyi, head of the water research institute under the Beijing Normal University, said the regions along the central route should boost the water conservation efforts.

Apart from conservation, the country should also adjust the industry structure and limit the highly water-consuming sectors, said Zhang Tong, deputy chief of the Beijing Institute of Water.

"As a common citizen, we should treasure and conserve water," said Liu Liping, a doctor in Beijing, recalling clean rivers in her childhood.

"Hundreds of thousands of people once living in the water source have been relocated for the project. We should be grateful and never forget their sacrifice," she said. Endite