China ’s go a problem . The southerly regions of the country are relatively humid and well - watered , yet much of the northward suffers from parchingly arid weather condition . This emergence has become increasingly burdensome as a third of the nation ’s huge universe is concentrate in the ironical northerly basin .
A bold answer is being extradite in the form of theSouth - North Water Transfer Project(SNWTP ) , an engineering megaproject that shoot for to shift 44.8 billion three-dimensional meters of fresh water from the south of the country to the north each class by 2050 . For context , that measure of H2O is more than twice the flow of the Colorado River in the US .
The projection is said to have been inspired by Mao Zedong whoreportedlysaid in 1952 : " The South has plenty of water and the North miss it , so if potential why not take up some ? " . However , the ambitious program only became seriously talked about by senior leader in the 1990s when China ’s fortunes were rising and the universe keep to rocket .
The body of water is transported almost entirely downstream using gravity through a connection of hokey channels and canals . The mesh will eventually dwell of three chief passages – the Western Route Project , the Middle Route Project , and the Eastern Route Project – which hive off piss from the upper , halfway , and lower reaches of the Yangtze River towards the north and northwestward .
Water started flowing down the Eastern and Middle Routes in December 2013 and December 2014 , delivering sweet water to parts of the Huang - Huai - Hai knit stitch and beyond .
Chinaestimatesthat some 185 million people living in dozens of cities along the two routes have already do good from the projection ’s menstruation . Even Beijing , the capital city of over 22 million residents , receives substantial amountsof its water via the SNWTP .
However , the Western Route is still being plan as of late 2024 . The road ’s progress has been slow by outside concerns that the reduced water flows would bear on one thousand thousand in other countries , like India .
On top of devil the neighbors , the project has not come cheap . The initiative had aprojected cost tagof at least $ 71 billion . In 2014 , the SNWTP and other piss transfer projectsaccounted foraround 1 percentage of China ’s GDP , around $ 150 billion .
There has also been an immense societal cost . grant toChinese sensitive , at least 440,000 hoi polloi had to be “ relocate ” from their homes in central China to make way for the first stagecoach of the labor ’s eastern and central routes .
Additionally , there are huge environmental concerns , as is often the case with engineering projects on this scale . study have shownthat the project has reduced water quality across the control board in adjacent river systems , plus importantly come down the abundance of Pisces the Fishes and marine life in those waters .
While the SNWTP is regarded as an investment in the future tense , the desiccated northcontinues to facesevere water shortages , with no authority it will withstand the looming climate modification - induced drouth .
