In what looks to be a very quick turnaround in planning, the North south water diversion project that was just last week being pushed off, is now being pushed forward.
The difficulty of the task, and the questionable logic behind the project, are well summed in the article:
The huge project consists of eastern, middle and western routes. The eastern and middle routes are already under construction. The western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is still at the planning stage.
The Project’s statistics showed that a total 45.67 billion yuan of investment have been earmarked for the huge water project by the end of November, and 22.39 billion yuan had already been spent, with 4.16 billion yuan on the eastern route and 18.23 billion yuan on the middle route.
which is in essence taking water and moving it to Beijing:
According to the project office, about one billion cubic meters of water could be diverted to Beijing annually, when that part of the huge project is completed in 2010.
Perhaps now is a good time to once again highlight the article Beijing gets population size warning where the authors point out that the capital’s resources are not only stretched, but are being used in a very poor and inefficient manner, and better planning and management is needed to ensure the long term viability of Beijing.
[...] water to its parched north, in an attempt to mitigate environmental damage. (Updated | 4 Jan 09 : Cleaner Greener China points to conflicting stories about the delay — some say yes, others no — for reasons [...]
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