AFP, Danjiangkou :
A towering dam in central China holds back a vast expanse of water destined to travel over 1,000 kilometres north to Beijing, but critics say it will only temporarily quench the city’s thirst.
China’s capital on Saturday received its first flows from the South-North Water Diversion Project, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Chinese history.
After decades of planning and at least $33 billion of investment, over a billion cubic metres of water is projected to flow to the capital every year, through more than 1,200 kilometres of channels and pipes-the distance from London to Madrid.
“Beijing is now formally receiving water” from the project, the city’s government said in a text message.
Another 8.5 billion cubic metres-equivalent to 3.4 million Olympic-sized swimming pools-will reach provinces along the way, planners say.
China’s government says the project, which will ultimately have three routes and an estimated $81 billion total cost, will solve a chronic shortage in China’s northern cities.
Water availability per person in Beijing is on a par with Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, threatening economic growth, the key source of support for China’s ruling Communist party.
“This water needs to go to the North,” said a tour guide surnamed Chen, standing atop the 110-metre-high dam at the Danjiangkou reservoir in the central province of Hubei, which sits 120 meters above Beijing’s sea-level to allow flow by pure gravity.
Among the engineering feats involved are a 7.2 kilometre-long tunnel beneath the Yellow river-China’s second biggest waterway-described in official reports as “the most enormous river crossing project in human history”.
To carry the flow over one river in Henan province, Chinese engineers built a 12 kilometre aqueduct-the longest in the world.
But critics say that the scheme’s success is jeopardised by declining rainfall in the south, and it will only act as a temporary stopgap in the north’s insatiable demand.
Northern China supports nearly half the country’s population and economy alongside two-thirds of its arable land, but has just a fifth its total water supply, according to the World Bank.
Looking over the Yellow river in 1952, Communist China’s founding father, Mao Zedong is reported to have said: “The north of China needs water and the south has plenty. It would be fine to borrow some if possible.”
At a time when a single word from Mao could launch a project, studies were swiftly begun but technical concerns and lack of capital meant the idea was shelved until a revival by then-president Jiang Zemin, whose government approved it in 2002.
A towering dam in central China holds back a vast expanse of water destined to travel over 1,000 kilometres north to Beijing, but critics say it will only temporarily quench the city’s thirst.
China’s capital on Saturday received its first flows from the South-North Water Diversion Project, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Chinese history.
After decades of planning and at least $33 billion of investment, over a billion cubic metres of water is projected to flow to the capital every year, through more than 1,200 kilometres of channels and pipes-the distance from London to Madrid.
“Beijing is now formally receiving water” from the project, the city’s government said in a text message.
Another 8.5 billion cubic metres-equivalent to 3.4 million Olympic-sized swimming pools-will reach provinces along the way, planners say.
China’s government says the project, which will ultimately have three routes and an estimated $81 billion total cost, will solve a chronic shortage in China’s northern cities.
Water availability per person in Beijing is on a par with Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, threatening economic growth, the key source of support for China’s ruling Communist party.
“This water needs to go to the North,” said a tour guide surnamed Chen, standing atop the 110-metre-high dam at the Danjiangkou reservoir in the central province of Hubei, which sits 120 meters above Beijing’s sea-level to allow flow by pure gravity.
Among the engineering feats involved are a 7.2 kilometre-long tunnel beneath the Yellow river-China’s second biggest waterway-described in official reports as “the most enormous river crossing project in human history”.
To carry the flow over one river in Henan province, Chinese engineers built a 12 kilometre aqueduct-the longest in the world.
But critics say that the scheme’s success is jeopardised by declining rainfall in the south, and it will only act as a temporary stopgap in the north’s insatiable demand.
Northern China supports nearly half the country’s population and economy alongside two-thirds of its arable land, but has just a fifth its total water supply, according to the World Bank.
Looking over the Yellow river in 1952, Communist China’s founding father, Mao Zedong is reported to have said: “The north of China needs water and the south has plenty. It would be fine to borrow some if possible.”
At a time when a single word from Mao could launch a project, studies were swiftly begun but technical concerns and lack of capital meant the idea was shelved until a revival by then-president Jiang Zemin, whose government approved it in 2002.
