The Three Gorges Reservoir on the Yangtze River might be taken as an
additional source for the mammoth South-North Water Diversion Project, due to a
declining water reserve in the original one, according to some deputies
attending the ongoing annual session of the Chinese legislature.
"It is an imperative need to channel in water from the Three Gorges
Reservoir, but the plan is being examined for approval," said Yu Xuexin, a
deputy to the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC) that is in a ten-day annual
session in Beijing.
According to the original plan for the unprecedented water diversion project,
9.5 billion cubic meters of water will be diverted from the Danjiangkou
Reservoir in Hubei Province through the central route to the arid northern part
of China between 2002 and 2010.
However, the rainfall on the upper reaches of the reservoir decreased at an
average annual speed of 15 percent in the past few years, said Yu, also director
of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission.
The Three Gorges Reservoir will ensure the water supply to the central route
for a long term, and it is a better choice than some other suggestions, said Lei
Hengshun, an environment professor with Chongqing University.
Upon completion of the entire Three Gorges Project in 2009, the reservoir,
with a storage capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters of water and annual
inpouring runoff of 451 billion cubic meters of water, will provide sufficient
freshwater as a backup for the South-North Water Diversion Project, said Wu
Gang, an NPC deputy and also the vice director of the Beijing Municipal
Development and Reform Commission.
Administrative regulations should be enacted particularly to ensure security,
environmental protection and water quality of the Three Gorges Project, the
world's largest hydropower program with a designed annual generating capacity of
84.7 billion kWh of hydro-electric power, Wu said.
China's per capita fresh water is barely a quarter of the world average.
The south-north water diversion project was first imagined by former Chinese
leader Mao Zedong in 1952. After protracted debates that lasted nearly a half
century, the State Council sanctioned the ambitious project in December 2002.
It plans to divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually from the
Yangtze River, China's longest river, through eastern, middle and western routes
to relieve water shortages in North China by 2050.
The construction of the project's eastern route began in December 2002 and is
expected to supply water to Shandong Province by 2007. The central route began
in December 2003 and is due to supply water to Henan and Hebei provinces,
Beijing and Tianjin by 2010. The western route is scheduled to begin
construction in 2010. The massive water diversion project will cost 500 billion
yuan (61.65 billion US dollars).