Water conservation improvements in the capital city of Beijing have
made headway recently. Channels to divert water from the Yangtze
River to the country's thirsty north have been laid out, said an
official from the project's Beijing construction office. The main
pipeline is going to traverse the city's Fourth-Ring Road, under
the ground, and finally empty into Tuancheng Lake -- the outlying
part of the Summer Palace's Kunming Lake.
Meanwhile, at the Sino-Britain Urban Water Environment Seminar
recently held in Beijing, Xiang Wenjuan, a professor from the
Beijing Municipal Water Conservancy Planning and Designing Research
Institute, announced a new series of plans to improve the capital's
water situation.
According to sources from the Beijing office, the water channels
for the Beijing section of huge diversion project are planned to
start from the middle reaches of the Juma River, pass the
Nanquanshui, Dashi and Yongding rivers, enter the city, traverse
the Fourth-Ring Road, under the ground, and finally arrive at
Tuancheng Lake, stretching a total distance of 80 kilometers (50
miles). Once completed, the Miyun Reservoir will no longer be the
only drinking water resource for the city's residents. The water
diverted from the south will satisfy residential water consumption
and part of the city's industrial water requirements. Substituted
water resource will then be used to facilitate urban environmental
construction. According to the water conservancy scheme, "By 2005,
Beijing will complete 44 new ecological and forest parks and lakes,
enlarging the city's water surface area by twice the current
volume," said an official from the office.
The newly-developed water conservancy plans point out that by 2005,
Beijing will build 16 sewage treatment plants and 14 with deep
treatment capabilities in urban and rural areas, and Beijing
Waterworks No.10 in urban area. The plans are expected to help
provide 800 million cubic meters more water during rainy seasons,
partly addressing the city's the water shortage problems. However,
in years of low water supply, the city will still face water
shortages of some 700 million cubic meters, a figure which will
increase annually. However, once completed, the south-to-north
water diversion project will radically improve the problem, with
annual net diverted water reaching 1 billion cubic meters.
Recently, the project to divert water from the Yangtze River to the
arid north, costing an estimated 486 billion yuan (about US$59
billion), was officially launched with the approval of the State
Council.
(china.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, January 1, 2003)