An emergency project to divert water from nearby Hebei Province is expected to be completed next year and to start to pump water to this thirsty Chinese capital city in 2007, an official with the Beijing Water Authority said Wednesday.
The 225-kilometer conduit, which will have cost of 12.384 billion yuan (about US$1.497 billion), will siphon water from four major reservoirs of Gangnan, Wangkuai, West Ocean and Huangbi Village in Shijiazhuang City of Hebei Province, at a time when Beijing is expected to suffer from severe water shortages.
The new waterway is also part of China's massive project to divert water from the Yangtze River to north China, which will be finished by 2010. From that time on, 1 billion cubic meters of water will be able to be transported to Beijing through the conduit, around the size of three Miyun Reservoirs, the major water supplier for Beijing today.
According to estimates, the price of water from Yangtze River is 6 yuan (about US$0.73) per cubic meter. And the current price of 5.14 yuan (about US$0.62) per cubic meter will be raised to 6 yuan by 2007.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2005)
