Mega water diversion project boon for China with broader spillovers

BEIJING -- As the operation of China's south-to-north water diversion project enters its sixth year, it is about time to fully understand benefits it has brought for the populous yet water-stressed nation.

Since Dec 12, 2014, the first phase of eastern and middle routes have delivered nearly 30 billion cubic meters of water to the country's north.

Directly benefitting more than 120 million people, it has served as a lifeline of water supply for over 40 large and medium-sized cities and 260 counties as these areas started to use the "southern water," said Vice Minister of Water Resources Jiang Xuguang.

In Beijing, it has transferred over 5.2 billion cubic meters of water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Central China's Hubei province, benefiting more than 12 million residents. In Tianjin, the water used in all 14 urban districts comes from the Hanjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze, he said.

Apart from the tangibles, the project has increasingly drawn public attention for its facilitation of economic growth, industrial upgrading and ecological improvement in regions along the routes.

During the construction of the eastern and middle routes, investment in the project helped lift China's GDP growth by 0.12 percentage points each year, with nearly 100,000 workers employed each day during the peak of the construction, according to Jiang.

Data also showed that the routes have boosted industrial and agricultural output for cities on the receiving end by almost 100 billion yuan ($14.25 billion ) per year.