Shanghai is embarking on a new project for treatment of water from estuary of Yangtze River to supply local people with grade one drinking water.

The new source of water, covering 30 square kilometers and with a capacity of 200 million cubic meters, is located on the western end of Changxing Island, according to officials from the city's water affairs department.

Tests show the water to be used for the project already reaches the state's grade two level and 24 hours of treatment will lift it to a grade one level making it drinkable, said officials.

A seven-kilometer cross-river pipeline will carry 3 million cubic meters of water a day to about 3 million people in Shanghai with a total population of 16 million.

With an average of 760 cubic meters of water per person, only one tenth of the world average, Shanghai is one of China's six major cities experiencing serious water shortage this century.

There are now two sources of water in Shanghai, one from upper reaches of Huangpu River and the other from coastal area of Baoshan district along the Yangtze River. They are able to supply the city with 7 million cubic meters of water everyday. City water officials expect a per day shortage of 2.58 million cubic meters by 2020.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2002)