Zhang Ruxian, an 83-year-old farmer living in Nanchuan Village in Gansu, an inland province in northwest China, was overjoyed when he learned that the government had launched a project last week to deliver clean drinking water to his parched village.

Zhang is one of the roughly 3 million people living in 11 counties and districts in central Gansu who will have access to drinking water thanks to the project, said Kang Guoxi, deputy director of Gansu Provincial Water Resources Department.

The project will divert water from the Taohe River. The diverted water will be used to replenish the region's water supply, improve irrigation and generate electricity.

According to official sources in the province, 155 townships in 11 counties and districts in central Gansu suffer from serious drought. Each person in the region has access to only 130 cubic metres of useable water per year, only 6 percent of China's national average.

The water-diversion project is to be carried out in two phases, each lasting about six years.

"With a total investment of 4 billion yuan (US$500 million), the first phase (which started last week) will build a 110-kilometre main tunnel linking the river with six counties and districts," Kang said.

The second phase, which will run from 2012 to 2018, will quench the thirst of the remaining five counties and districts.

Serious drought and water shortages have left 2.99 million of Gansu's farmers living in poverty. The average net annual income of a farmer in the province was only 1,079 yuan (US$135) last year.

"Local farmers had to collect rainwater for drinking, which is bitter and unhealthy. This extremely serious water shortage affected the development of the local economy and threatened people's ability to make a living," Kang said.

The Taohe River, a large tributary off the upper reaches of the Yellow River, originates in the Xiqing Mountains between Gansu and Qinghai Province in northwest China.

(China Daily November 27, 2006)