Addressing a press conference in Beijing Monday, Vice-Minister of Water Resources Zhao Jiyao called the South-North Cross-Country Water-Transfer Project a strategic infrastructure undertaking for China's sustainable development and a huge environmental endeavor.

He quoted Premier Zhu Rongji as once saying that the project is aimed at relieving severe water shortage in north China, and it will conserve water, tackle pollution and be environmentally friendly.

The project includes three south-north canals in the eastern, central and western parts of the country, according to the minister.

By 2050, it is expected to be capable of shifting 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually, with 14.8 billion cubic meters, 13 billion cubic meters and 17 billion cubic meters carried out the eastern, central and western canals respectively.

In the first phase of the project, three sub-projects will include two sections of the eastern canal in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, and the shoring-up of the Danjiangkou Reservoir Dam in central China's Hubei Province, at the head of the central canal.

The central canal will draw Yangtze River water up to Beijing by 2010, and the eastern canal will take Yangtze River water to Shandong Province by 2005.

The completion of the first-phase sub-projects are likely to improve the quality of drinking water in some northern areas where underground water contains harmful pollutants.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2002)