The Beijing municipal government has finished drafting a
distribution plan for 300 to 500 million cubic meters of water to
be supplied from neighboring Hebei Province.
The Beijing News reports the water will be channeled into
the municipal water pipeline system to help supply Beijing
residents. The newspaper report says the water supply will be
diverted from Hebei via an "emergency" section of the country's
giant north-south water diversion project.
The report says the Jingshi section, from Shijiazhuang, the
provincial capital city of Hebei, to Beijing's Tuanchenghu Lake,
will be able to transport water in April next year to ensure water
supply safety during the Beijing Olympic Games. Construction of
some key parts of the section is at full tilt to have them finished
on schedule.
The report says four large reservoirs in Hebei will provide
clean drinking water to Beijing, with the water in one being
directly drinkable.
China originally plans to supply Beijing with water from the
Yangtze River via the middle section of the water diversion
project. However, as the Olympic games will further pressure the
city's water supply and the mid-section is expected to be finished
by 2010, the Jingshi channel was adopted as an alternate route.
(CRI November 26, 2007)
