China's diversion of major river to provide water for Beijing Olympics

Washington, Feb 29 : China is diverting more than 150 million cubic meters (39.6 billion gallons) of water from the Yellow River through a network of canals to refill a lake near Beijing, which would help provide plentiful water for this summer's Olympic Games.

According to a report in National Geographic News, this diversion is a part of a nationwide project that has begun tapping a lattice of reservoirs, rivers, and canals across eastern China to provide adequate water for the Olympics.

"Athletes from all over the world will come to China to join the Olympic Games in August," said Huang Feng, a researcher at the Yellow River Conservancy Commission, which is in charge of the river's diversion. "So Beijing is implementing its master plan to provide the very highest quality of water," he added.

The report stated that a parallel project is also diverting water to the east coast resort of Qingdao, which will host the Olympic sailing competitions.

The current rerouting is just the precursor to a 60-billion-U.S.-dollar hydro-engineering project expected to see three human-carved rivers carry water from southern China to the arid north.

The water transfer project is designed to divert more than 40 billion cubic meters (10.5 trillion gallons) of water each year from China's longest river, the Yangtze, and its tributaries.

ANI