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China's South-North Water Transfer Project and Its Impacts on Economic and Social Development

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China's South-North Water Transfer Project and Its Impacts on Economic and Social Development China’s South-North Water Transfer Project and Its Impacts on Economic and Social Development Zhu, Ruixiang Vice President, Management Bureau for South-North Water Transfer Planning and Design, Ministry of Water Resources I Water shortage in North China and its impacts Water resources are unevenly distributed in China with great differences from south to north. Water resources are rich in the south while insufficient in the north, especially in the Huang-Huai-Hai (Yellow river, Huai river, and Hai river) Plain. Water is also unevenly distributed in space: Northern part of China: Water resources: 19% population: 47% Cultivated land: 64% GDP: 45% Southern part of China: Water resources: 81% population: 53% Cultivated land: 35% GDP: 55% In order to sustain economic and social development, water conservation is greatly emphasized, at the same time various water sources are developed in northern part of China due to the scarcity of water resources. In the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, the degree of water resources exploitation has exceeded 60%, it even reaches to 90% in the Hai River Basin. Not only surface water is extensively developed, but also groundwater resources are largely exploited in area. In 1997 groundwater utilization takes 38.7% of the total water supply in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, among which 61% in the Hai River Basin. Over-exploitation of surface water has caused withering of some rivers and lakes, low capacity of flood discharge of river channels, decrease of flow entering into the sea, increasing siltation of river estuaries and increasingly water disputes between regions, cities or townships. In 1990’s, dry-up of the Yellow River occurred very often. In 1997 the dry-up period of the Yellow River reached to 226 days. The middle and lower reaches of some tributaries in the Hai River Basin tend to be dried all year round. The Middle reaches of the Huai River also experienced an unusual dry-up in the history. The accumulated over exploitation of groundwater resources has reached to 6 billion m3. In the Hai River Plain, shallow aquifer has been over-exploited in the areas along the Jingguang Railway. Part of the aquifer in Beijing and Hebei Province are nearly dried up, and in most of the areas, depth of groundwater has dropped from 2-3m to 10-31m. Southeast part of the Hai River Plain suffers from severe shortage of fresh water, as most of the shallow aquifer contain salty or slightly salty water and can only dig high-fluorite deep groundwater that is difficult for recharge. After groundwater exploitation, the depth of groundwater at the sinking core area has been drowned down at a speed of 3-5 meters each year. Till 1998, the area with accumulated sinking depth of more than 300 mm reached to 18,200 km2 in the Hebei Plain, and the area with an accumulated sinking depth of more than 1.5 m reached to 133 km2 in Tianjin area. Water shortage problem in North China poses a big threat to the sustainable development of our society. Firstly, it becomes an obstacle for the enhancement of people’ s living standard as well as construction and development of big water-consuming industrial enterprise. Secondly, it causes further worsening of ecological environment and associated with many environmental problems of land sinking, seawater intrusion and return flow of seawater. Thirdly, water shortage restricts agricultural development in North China and threatens food safety of our country. Fourthly, national economic loss is big due to water shortage. National economy becomes more and more relied on water resources for further development along with social and economic development. Water crisis in North China will certainly results in big loss of the national economy, which shall be worsened together with even more serious water crisis. II South-North Water Transfer Project Yangtze River is the longest river in China with abundant water resources. The mean annual runoff is about 960 billion m3. The runoff in the extreme dry year is 760 m3. Above 94% of runoff of the Yangtze River enters into the sea every year. It is feasible to transfer some of the water from the Yangtze River to alleviate water shortage in the northern part of China. After about 50 years’ reconnaissance, planning and study as well as assessment of more than 50 design options, three water diversion areas are planed in the lower, middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River (also called Changjiang River) respectively, and then forms three water diversion routes of east, middle and west, i.e. the current South-North Water Transfer Project. 1. East Route East Route will base on an existing North Jiangsu Water Transfer Project. Water will be pumped from the pumping stations near Yangzhou in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, through the Jing-Hang Grand Canal and its parallel river channels as the main or branch canals to the North China Plain. The canals shall link the storage reservoirs of Hongze Lake, Luoma Lake, Nansi Lake and Dongping Lake, and crosses the Yellow River through tunnels to the newly-built Weilin Canal to Weiyun Canal and Nanyun Canal and finally reach to Tianjing. Nearly 90% of the water transfer canals are existing river channels or lakes. Besides, water shall be diverted from the Dongping Lake to the cities of Jinan, Yantai, and Weihai in Shangdong Peninsula. The highest place in the East Route Scheme is the Dongping Lake where is about 40 meters higher than the water level of the Yangtze River. Thus 75 pumping stations in 13 cascades are planed to build with a total lift of around 65 meters. Water shall flow by gravity to Tianjin after it crosses the Yellow River. Since many existing river channels and lakes are used by the East Route Scheme and water quality of these rivers and lakes are not up to the standard, water pollution control tends to be very important. It is planned to build 135 sewage treatment plants, 33 pollution control or diversion works and make industrial structure adjustment for 38 plants, initiate 150 industrial pollution control projects and 13 watershed pollution control projects in the project area. The scope of water supply of the East Route Scheme covers the eastern part of the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and Shandong Peninsula. The nearest target of water supply is to mainly satisfy domestic and industrial water needs and then water needs of irrigation, navigation and environment. It shall be able to transfer the water of 14.8 billion m3/yr (including the capacity of the existing North Jiangsu Water Transfer Project). The construction of the scheme is divided into three stages. The first stage is to complete water supply to Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. The planned annual water diversion is 8.9 billion m3/yr (500m3/s), excluding the capacity of the existing project, the newly-increased water supply is 3.9 billion m3/yr. The other element of the project is to complete pollution control and pollution intercept and discharge projects so as to ensure that water quality meet class-III of national surface water standard. 2. Middle Route Water shall be diverted from the Taocha Gate of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, through the Fangchengyakou divide of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, the Tangbai River Basin and along the western edge of the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, to cross the Yellow River through tunnels dug at the Gupazui in the west of Zhengzhou City and along the west line of the Jing-Guang Railway to Beijing and Tianjing by gravity. The Tianjing Main Canal starts from the Xushui County to Tianjing. Water supply areas of the Middle Route Scheme are Tangbai River basin, upper and middle reaches of the Huai River and west plain of the Hai River basin, including provinces or municipalities of Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjing. The main objective of the scheme is to provide water for more than 20 large or medium cities along the route, such as Beijing, Tianjing and Shijiazhuang etc. and also considers environmental and agricultural water demand. It shall be able to transfer the water of 13 billion m3/yr. The construction of the scheme is divided into two phases. The first phase is to heighten the Danjiangkou Dam to a normal storage level of 170 m. The main canal from the Taocha Gate to Tuanchenghu in Beijing is 1267 km long and the main canal to Tianjing is 154 km. In the middle and lower reaches of the Han River (down stream of Dangjiangkou reservoir), four sub-projects will be developed to minimize impacts of environment and social development to down stream area. The annual water diversion of the scheme is 9.5 billion m3/yr. Water pollution and soil erosion shall be controlled in the surrounding area of the Danjiangkou Reservoir and upper reaches of the Hanjiang River, so as to protect water quality of the reservoir. 3. West Route West Route Scheme includes several dams built in the Dadu River, Yalong River and Tongtian River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and tunnels across the Bayankela Mountains to upper reaches of Yellow river. It was planned in three stages. The first stage consists of 5 dams and 260 km tunnels, capable of transferring water of 4 km3/yr. The second stage will add another dam and 304 km tunnels (260km will be parallel with the first stage), capable of transferring another 5 km3/yr. The third stage will add one more dam and 508km tunnels (304km is parallel with the second stage), capable of transferring water of 8 km3/yr.
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