South-North Water Diversion Project

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is designed to divert water from the water-rich south of the country, mainly the Yangtze, the country's longest river, to arid northern parts. The huge project consists of eastern, middle and western routes. The eastern and middle routes are already under construction. The western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is still at the planning stage.

Sections of the project in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces along the eastern route had been completed, as well as the section linking Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, and Beijing. Upon the completion of a major canal linking Shijiazhuang and Beijing, an emergency diversion had been started in September to supply about 300 million cubic meters of water to the Chinese capital until March 10, 2009 to ease water shortage in Beijing. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the eastern route of the project.