U.S. Water News Online
BEIJING -- China has started building a new section of a multibillion-dollar project to bring water to Beijing and other parts of its dry north, the government says.
Work on the latest phase of the South-North Water Diversion Project began recently in Hebei province, which surrounds the Chinese capital, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The water project is meant to divert 12 trillion gallons of water a year from the Yangtze River in China's wetter south. The first supplies are to reach Beijing in 2007, with final construction to be finished in 2010.
The water diversion effort is one of the world's biggest and costliest building projects, with a projected total price of $60 billion.
Chronic water shortages in China's north have left many cities short of drinking water and hurt economic development plans.
``The government has decided to accelerate part of the central section project in northern China's Hebei province so as to alleviate the imminent problem in Beijing as fast as possible,'' Xinhua said.
Annual water supplies around the capital average 78,000 gallons per person, far below a standard of 260,000 gallons that is considered to be a shortage, Xinhua said.
Construction of the first phase of the project began in 2002 in eastern China.
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