The South-to-North Water Transfer Project of China

The south of China has more water while north has less. In order to solve water shortage in Huang-Huai-Hai River Basin, the South-to-North Water Transfer Project will be built to deliver water separately from the upper, middle, lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The South-to-North Water Transfer Project is composed with the three routes, East Route, Middle Route and West Route, which can be connected to from a huge network with "four transverse and three longitudinal waterways" with such four rivers as the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huai River and Hai River. The implement of the first stages project of East Route and Middle Route can promote carrying capacity of water resources and environment in water receiving areas, promote the efficiency of resources dispatching, the strategic adjustment of economy structure and reserves for economic development, inhibit and gradually improve the deteriorating ecological environment and ensure the sustainable development of economy, society and environment. China is a country short of water resources. Although the total amount of water resources reaches 2812.4 billion m³, per capita is only about 2100 m³, one-fourth of the world average, due to the large population. Moreover water resources are unevenly distributed in both space and time, and water resources are incompatible with combination of other resources. Therefore, appropriate allocation of limited water resources for raising water use efficiency is a very important issue for China's social and economic sustainable development. According the layout character of water resource in our country, Chairman Mao Zedong put forward a great idea on October 30, 1952, that since there is more water in the south than in the north, it is desirable to transfer some water if possible. Since then, under the lead and care of the Party Central Committee and State Council a large number of scientific and technical people have made preparation for the South-to-North Water Transfer Project during the past 50 years, during which lots of investigation and survey have been done. Based on comparison of so many alternatives, a fundamental scheme composed of the east, middle and west routes has been developed and lots of valuable results have been obtained. In Dec, 2002, The General Program of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project was approved by the State Council. Now some of the works of the first stage of East Route and Middle Route have been under construction.