A project to divert water from Yellow River, the second longest in China, into Tianjin, a north China port city, became operational Friday.
This is the seventh time that China has re-routed water from the Yellow River into Tianjin, an important economic center in north China.
The project will channel the Yellow River water at the Weishan Gate in Dong'e County, east China's Shandong Province, and then travel more than 580 kilometers and lead water into Tianjin at Jiuxuan Gate. Some 400 million cubic meters of water will eventually diverted into Tianjin waterworks and the Beidagang Reservoir.
To fight its water crisis, the Tianjin city government has taken a series of water-saving measures and reduced daily water consumption from over 2.2 million cubic meters to 1.6 million cubic meters.
The central government has approved use of the water in the Panjiakou Reservoir for the city, and in early September launched the Yellow River-Tianjin diversion plan.
In 1983 a water diversion project to send water from the Luanhe River into Tianjin was built by the city to ease its water shortage.
(Xinhua 10/13/2000)
