Water diversion project increases supply to parched Beijing

BEIJING - A new pumping station has increased the capacity of the massive project bringing water from the Yangtze River to Beijing, just as the city's water demand soars under a heat wave.

Huinanzhuang, a major pumping station on the middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project, went into operation on Monday, pushing up the water inflow of the route from 24 to 38 cubic meters per second, according to the Beijing south-to-north water diversion office.

As a result, the project's water supply capacity has been increased from 2.07 to 3.28 million cubic meters per day, with its daily supply to the city's water plants growing from 1.77 to 2 million cubic meters.

Beijingers have been thirsty as the Chinese capital has baked under temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius since Saturday. Daily water supply in the city has been kept above 3 million cubic meters this week.

The middle route of the diversion project brings water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the middle-upper reaches of the Hanjiang River, the largest tributary of the Yangtze River, to Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin.

Beijing has received 300 million cubic meters of Yangtze water as of Monday since the completion of the project's first phase in December.