The Beijing municipal government has finished drafting a distribution plan for 300 to 500 million cubic meters of water to be supplied from neighboring Hebei Province.

The Beijing News reports the water will be channeled into the municipal water pipeline system to help supply Beijing residents. The newspaper report says the water supply will be diverted from Hebei via an "emergency" section of the country's giant north-south water diversion project.

The report says the Jingshi section, from Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital city of Hebei, to Beijing's Tuanchenghu Lake, will be able to transport water in April next year to ensure water supply safety during the Beijing Olympic Games. Construction of some key parts of the section is at full tilt to have them finished on schedule.

The report says four large reservoirs in Hebei will provide clean drinking water to Beijing, with the water in one being directly drinkable.

China originally plans to supply Beijing with water from the Yangtze River via the middle section of the water diversion project. However, as the Olympic games will further pressure the city's water supply and the mid-section is expected to be finished by 2010, the Jingshi channel was adopted as an alternate route.

(CRI November 26, 2007)