Water supplied from China's gigantic South-to-North Water Diversion Project will help curb the use of groundwater and eventually may reduce sandstorms in its arid north in the later part of this century, said a Chinese official.

The water diversion project is designed to carry 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually from the Yangtze, China's longest river, through its eastern, central and western routes.

The water supplies will help reduce the exploitation of groundwater by 3.6 billion cubic meters per year by 2010, said Li Xinjun, Director of the Construction and Management Department with the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Office of the State Council.

"Regular water supplies from the diversion routes will help restore the ecological system in dry plain areas in the Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe river basins, with wetlands replenished and the bio-diversity protected," Li said at a forum during the just-closed "Sino-Italian Green Week".

"The number and variety of vegetation will be expanded due to sufficient water support, and the dust content in air will be reduced, resulting in fewer sandstorms," he said.

North China has long been a populous area and an industrial and agricultural base. As industrial and agricultural production develops and population increases, the per capita share of water resources in the region keeps falling.

Many areas in north China have to exploit groundwater excessively and seize water from farming and ecological projects to ensure urban and industrial development.

Tianjin, a port city neighboring Beijing, has reported two meters of land subsidence caused by over-exploitation of underground water in recent years.

Li Xinjun said the project will also help abate severe water shortage in rural areas.

By 2010, about 1.5 billion cubic meters of water, which otherwise will be snatched to support urban residents and enterprises in north China, can be returned to facilitate farming.

Additional of 1.6 billion cubic meters of water purified from urban sewage will also be used for agriculture, Li said.

Work began in December 2002 on the eastern route of the water diversion project, which is expected to supply water to east China's Shandong Province and the northern part of Jiangsu Province by 2007.

Construction of the central route started in December 2003 and the project is due to supply Henan and Hebei provinces and Beijing and Tianjin municipalities by 2010.

The western route is scheduled to begin in 2010 to supply water to the country's northwestern region but it won't be completed until 2050.

The entire project is expected to cost 500 billion yuan (US$62 billion).
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2006)