Beijing's largest reservior to receive 'southern water'

BEIJING -- Miyun Reservior, the largest reservior of Beijing that provides 60 percent of drinking water to the city, is expected to receive water from a tributary of the Yangtze River in July, local authorities announced Saturday.

The water storage of Miyun Reservoir, located in Miyun County in northern Beijing, has been less than a quarter of its capacity for years, forcing the city to overexploit the underground water.

The water from the China's massive south-to-north water diversion project is expected to increase the reservior's water storage level and optimize the allocation of water resources in Beijing, according to the Beijing south-to-north water diversion office.

For the reservior to get water, a 103-km channel has been built to pump water from the Tuanchenghu water station in Haidian District, one of the major recipient site of the southern water.

Thanks to the south-to-north water diversion project, about 5 million Beijing residents are now drinking water from the Yangtze River. Water began to be routed from the central Chinese province of Hubei to the capital since Dec. 12 last year.

The first stage of this middle route -- one of three routes involved in the water diversion project -- starts at Hubei's Danjiangkou Reservoir, which stores water from the Hanjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River.

A 1,432-km-long canal brings the water to China's thirsty northern regions, including the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and the provinces of Henan and Hebei.

The amount of water flowing along the middle route is expected to increase from the current 9.5 billion cubic meters to 13 billion cubic meters by 2030.