Water diversion project brings many benefits

The 2.8 million or so residents of Weihai are among the 68 million people who have benefited from the eastern route, the company said.

It added that as of Sep 30, the route had diverted 40 billion cu m of water from the Yangtze River, over 6.1 billion cu m of which was delivered to Shandong.

The project has far more benefits in addition to addressing drought in the northern part of Jiangsu and many areas of Shandong, as I saw during my interview tour.

Thanks to the project, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal temporarily had water throughout its 1,794-kilometer length in April last year and also in that month this year. The canal connects Beijing and Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province.

Canal upgraded

As part of the construction work for the eastern route, almost 18 km of new watercourses were built and a section of the canal more than 92 km long was upgraded in Jiangsu. In Shandong, navigable sections of the canal totaling 62 km were constructed, and the increased water levels now permit larger ships to pass through.

Navigable sections of the 2,500-year-old canal, many parts of which once dried-up, have now reached 877 km, making it second in China to the Yangtze River in terms of navigation capability.

Without the water diversion project, there would be no Liangshan Port in Jining, Shandong, which went into operation in 2021.