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Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Alaborer works on the Danjiangkou dam, under construction for the middleroute of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Hubei province February 6, 2008.
BEIJING- China has postponed completing a huge water transfer project toquench its national capital's thirst, citing stubborn pollution worriesfor pushing the target date back four years to 2014, official mediasaid on Saturday.
The South-North Water Diversion scheme willchannel water from the Yangtze River and its tributaries to easeshortages across northern China, where population growth and franticindustrialization have drained dams and underground reserves.
Themain "central route" stretching 1,267 kms (787 miles) from theDanjiangkou Dam in central Hubei province to Beijing was due to befinished in 2010.
Hubei officials said onFriday that pollution and ecological strains in the rivers feeding thedam will make that impossible, Hubei's Changjiang Times said, in areport reprinted by the official Xinhua news agency ( www.xinhuanet.com).
"To prevent ecological and environmental risks to theSouth-North Water Diversion Project, completion of the central routewill be delayed for 4 years," said Wang Fenyu, a Hubei official workingon the scheme, according to the paper.
‘This means Beijingresidents will have to wait another 6 years before they can drinkhigh-quality water from the Dankiangkou Dam."
Until now,officials have given no sign the high-profile project would be delayed.The other, eastern route of the project has also been beset bypollution problems.
The hold-up could bring planning headachesfor China's national capital, which supports a population of 17 millionon dwindling local water sources.
In the absence of the Yangtzetributary supplies, Beijing has been pumping additional water fromneighboring Hebei province, which itself suffers severe shortfalls.
Hubei environmental official, Zou Qingping, said that once the centralroute draws water from the Danjiangkou Dam, reducing flows along theHan River that cuts past the dam, "water quality problems will becomeeven more serious" for the province.
Wang, the project official,said this meant "Hubei must build even more water treatment plants andecological restoration facilities."
There was no mention of thedelay on the South-North scheme's website ( www.nsbd.gov.cn ), and onthe weekend its officials could not be contacted for comment.
Criticsof the project have long said the scheme to replenish north China fromfar-off rivers risks dangerously destabilizing already battered watersystems.
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