Water Transfer - China

• 2 cities in Northern China, Beijing + Tianjin suffer from water scarcity due to high population density
• • government planned South-North water transfer project
  • $62 billion project will transfer 44.8 billion m3 from south to north every year
  • work began in 2002, Central and Eastern routes completed in 2014, Western route will be completed in 2050
  • Western route put on hold due to frequent earthquakes
  • Eastern route alone has 9km of tunnels and 23 pumping stations
• Advantages:

  • provides clean water to over 20 cities
  • estimated 100 million people will benefit
  • industrial development can continue in north to increase country's wealth
  • scheme provides water for farmland irrigation
  • should prevent over-abstraction in the north, helping to stop land subsidence
• Disadvantages:

  • large areas have been flooded, fragile ecosystems have been damaged
  • may cause water stress in the south
  • 345,000 people has to move and received very little compensation
  • urban poor and rural areas have no access to the diverted water
  • huge tax payer investment
• • high population densities, combined with expanding industry and an increasing need for agricultural land in the north had led to a high demand for water
  • in the past, groundwater was used to help meet demand. this led to water shortages in rural areas, along with land subsidence and sandstorms, soil dried out and became unstable