South–North Water Transfer Project

The South-North Water Transfer Project (Chinese: 南水北调工程; pinyin: Nánshuǐ Běidiào Gōngchéng) is a multi-decade infrastructure project of the People's Republic of China to better utilize water resources available to China. This is to be achieved through the South North Water Diversion Project (SNWD). Whilst the main thrust is to divert water from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River and Hai River, other spin-off plans are also loosely included. Amongst these, a controversial plan calling for the capture and diversion of water from Brahmaputra River, located in Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon north of India, has been under study for years. This is because the heavily industrialized Northern China has a much lower rainfall and its rivers are running dry. Already the Yellow River has often gone dry in its lower reaches in recent decades and some of the Hai River tributaries almost dried out throughout the year. Supply and demand conditions have often changed more rapidly than the project plans' ability to accommodate the changes, resulting in much higher costs and reduced benefits.

Project's conception

The idea for the South-North Water Transfer Project originated from Mao Zedong who said, "Southern water is plentiful, northern water scarce. If at all possible, borrowing some water would be good."^{[citation needed]} After his comments, the Chinese Water Works Department conducted several studies on the project. After decades of study,^{[citation needed]} the South-North Water Transfer Project settled on three different proposals for routes: The western route is in the western headwaters of the rivers where Yangtze River and Yellow River are closest to one another; the central route is from the upper reaches of the Han River (a tributary of Yangtze River) to Beijing and Tianjin; and the eastern route using the course of the Grand Canal. This project will divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water from South to North

Western route

The western route, called the Big Western Line, is to divert water from the headwater of the Yangtze River into the headwater of the Yellow River. In order to move the water through the drainage divide between these rivers, huge dams and long tunnels are needed to be built to cross the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Western Yunnan Plateaus. In addition, about 200 billion cubic metres (equalling 200 cubic km) of water will be diverted from the upstream sections of six rivers in southwestern China annually, including the Mekong, the Yarlung Zangbo and the Salween, to the dry areas of northern China through a system of reservoirs, tunnels and natural rivers. The feasibility of this route is still under study and this project won't start in the near future. Environmentalists have raised concerns about potential flooding that could result.

Central route

The central route is from Danjiangkou Reservoir on Han river, a tributary of the Yangtse River, to Beijing. This route is built on the North China Plain and, once the Yellow River has been crossed, water can flow all the way to Beijing by gravity. The main engineering challenge is to build a tunnel under the Yellow River. Construction on the central route began in 2004. In 2008 the 307 km-long Northern stretch of the central route has been completed at a cost of US$2 billion. Water in that stretch of the canal does not yet come from the Han River, but from various reservoirs in Hebei Province south of Beijing. Farmers and industries in Hebei had to cut back water consumption to allow for water to be transferred to Beijing.

The whole project was expected to be completed around 2010. This has recently been set back to 2014 to allow for more environmental protections to be built. A problem is the influence on the Han River, where ~1/3 of the water is diverted. One long-term consideration is to build another canal to divert water from the Three Gorges Dam to Danjiangkou Reservoir. Another major difficulty is the resettlement of ~330,000 persons around Danjiangkou Reservoir and along the route. On October 18th, 2009, Chinese officials began to relocate residents from the areas of the Hubei and Henan provinces that will be affected by the reservoir.

Eastern route

The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded. Water from the Yangtze River will be drawn into the canal in Jiangdu, where a giant 400 m³/s. pumping station was built already in the 1980s, and is then fed uphill by pumping stations along the Grand Canal and through a tunnel under the Yellow River, from where it can flow downhill to reservoirs near Tianjin. Construction on the Eastern Route officially began on December 27, 2002, and water is supposed to reach Tianjin by 2012. However, water pollution has affected the viability of this project.

The original plan that began in the 1950s and 1960s called for diverting the Nu (Salween), Lancang (Mekong), Tongtian, Yalong, Dadu Rivers into upstream Yellow River. The project was considered too immense and costly to be undertaken at the time. At the present, armed with new technology, feasibility studies have been conducted with the plan of connecting the three latter rivers (Tongtian, Yalong, and Dadu, rivers that flow entirely within the borders of China) and diverting them into the Yellow River. Of which, the Tongtian diversion line would be 289 km in length, the Yalong 131 km, and the Dadu 30 km.

Project controversy

Since the introduction of the project, it has created widespread controversy. Opponents to the project object to it on the grounds that it is a waste of resources, it could create a large number of migrant people, it could waste massive amounts of water through evaporation and pollution, the project's huge cost would make the water prohibitively expensive for consumers, the dry season could cause the Yangtze River to suffer from water shortages, it would be detrimental to the Yangtze River's transportation, and it could cause an environmental disaster. Government officials and defenders of the project claim the Yangtze River has a plentiful supply of water, with 96% of the water currently flowing into the Pacific Ocean. They argue that transferring one portion to the poorly irrigated areas of the North could solve the North's water scarcity issue. Additionally, some villagers being relocated for the Central route claim they were forced to sign relocation agreements.

As first users of the waters of Bhramaputra, over 150 million people are dependent on this river. The people of India and Bangladesh may oppose any attempt to divert the waters of this river. As the final users of the waters, Bangladesh will be the most severely affected by such diversion and the strongest opposition by government and other factions can be expected.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Water resources of China
• Meng Xuenong, the project's deputy director 2003-07
• Northern river reversal project in the Soviet Union

External links

• South-North Water Transfer Project
• Official Website (in Chinese)
• Map of South-North Project
• Thirsty China to divert the mighty Yangtze
• Water industry article
• Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up