(July 6, 2010) Authorities are still struggling with concerns about the poor water quality of the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) project eight years after the eastern route’s construction began.
Project’s delay leaves Beijing thirsty
(June 29, 2010) Delays in the controversial South-to-North Water Diversion Project are worsening Beijing’s water crisis, says a recent report from China Daily.
Danjiangkou Reservoir: A tale of two watersheds
(June 16, 2010) In the ultimate photo-op this week, Danjiangkou Mayor Zeng Wenhua, with press in tow, ladled a cup of water out of his city’s reservoir and drank it "without hesitation" to demonstrate its purity. The Danjiangkou Reservoir—on the Hanjiang River, a branch of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River—is slated to provide Beijing with water by 2014, once the central channel of the South-North Water Diversion scheme is completed.
Migrants “happy” to be resettled says China’s state-run media
(June 11, 2010) The more than 60-thousand Chinese citizens who will be pushed off of their land to make way for a massive South-North Water Diversion project are, according to one government official, ‘eager to move.’
Beijing residents worry their city is running out of water, looking to government for action
(June 5, 2010) Three-quarters of those interviewed in a recent survey about Beijing’s water crisis say that they are concerned about the capital city’s water shortages and that they feel pollution and overexploitation of water are to blame. The survey, commissioned by Friends of Nature, China’s oldest environmental organization, was released in Beijing today, World Environment Day.
Can the South-North water diversion project save North China?
(May 18, 2010) Falling water tables in North China resulted in the creation of the world’s largest subsidence funnel. According to an official report, overexploitation of groundwater in the past 50 years, amounting to 120 billion cubic meters of water and equivalent to 200 Lake Baiyangdians in Hebei Province, has led to the creation of the funnel in North China—Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin included.
Shanghai’s Expo: An excess like the Three Gorges dam
(April 29, 2010) Excessive spending that allows Chinese officials to put on an oversized Expo in Shanghai, also allowed them to engage in monumental nation-threatening efforts, such as building the Three Gorges Dam.
Beijing’s never-ending thirst
(April 14, 2010) Ongoing delays to the South-North Water Diversion Project will defer the delivery of one billion cubic meters of water annually over the next four years to Beijing. Now, a number of analysts in Beijing are offering suggestions on how the city should cope with its water crisis. Wang Jian And Liu Qiong, two Beijing-based water experts, say the city must ease the subsidies for water consumption to ensure that the price reflects its true cost, while implementing policies that promote the recycling of water and efficient use.
How will Beijing cope with the delay of China’s south-to-north water diversion project?
(April 12, 2010) According to the original plan, one billion cubic meters of water was to be taken from the Yangtze River every year and diverted to thirsty Beijing through the central canal of the massive South-North Water Diversion Project.
Drink water from Yangtze or ‘cocktail’
(March 24, 2010) Residents in Beijing may be drinking a cocktail of water in 2014 if they don’t get used to the taste of water from southern China. The Beijing Water Authority initiated a program on Monday to determine whether residents in Beijing can accept the taste of water from the Yangtze River.
As economy booms, China faces major water shortage
(March 16, 2010) A decade ago, China’s leaders gave the go-ahead to a colossal plan to bring more than 8 trillion gallons of water a year from the rivers of central China to the country’s arid north. The project would have erected towering dams, built hundreds of miles of pipelines and tunnels, and created vast reservoirs with a price tag three times that of the giant Three Gorges Dam.
Beijing once again turning to Hebei to solve its water problems
(March 9, 2010) Beijing’s worsening water crisis is once again forcing its neighbouring province Hebei to sacrifice more of its dwindling reserves. According to a recent report from China Daily, Hebei is expected to open four of its reservoirs this year in an effort to help cover demand in the country’s water-starved capital.
China villagers moved to quench the urban thirst
(March 3, 2010) About 330,000 people are relocating as part of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which will eventually see water transferred from the wet south to the dry north, where it is desperately needed. It is the biggest mass migration in China since the Three Gorges Dam project, under which some 1.5 million people have been relocated.
Capital thirsts for water from Hebei
(January 20, 2010) Neighboring province tightens its belts to ease Beijing’s shortage. Four reservoirs in Hebei are expected to be called upon again this year to supply water to Beijing, but the water delivery plan is still being negotiated by the Beijing and Hebei governments. The temporary plan for Beijing to get water from the four reservoirs – two in Shijiazhuang and two in Baoding – will bridge the gap until the South-to-North water diversion project is completed in 2014.
The South-North Water Diversion project: in the Chinese government’s own words
(February 3, 2010) After years of delays and setbacks, construction on the South North Water Diversion project is now moving forward at “full capacity.” According to an official from the State Council, in 2010 alone, the government plans to invest a record 48 billion yuan ($7.02 billion) in the massive water project.
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