Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Thursday called for great efforts in building the ambitious project to divert water from south China to the thirsty northern part. 

"We must be meticulous in organization, design and construction, and work hard to build a world first-class project," Wen said at a meeting of the State Council committee in charge of constructing the project.

Top priority must be given to economic use of water resources and pollution control, he stressed.

Wen urged departments concerned to speed up drafting plans and policies on financing, migration, water conservation, pollution control and water resources protection for the project, with emphasis placed on emergency water supply to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province.

Work on the eastern and central canals of the south-north water diversion project will start in anall-round way this year, Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday.

Efficient use of water and reducing water pollution in north China will be a major part of the huge water diversion project to bring much needed water to dry northern areas from the south, the premier said.

Relevant administrations are working on plans to protect the water from pollution along the diversion, Wen said at a meeting of the committee in charge of the project under the State Council.

The committee on Thursday approved in principle eight projects planned to start soon, including a canal from Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province to Tuancheng Lake in Beijing, the reinforcement of the dam of Danjiangkou Reservoir, a tunnel crossing the Yellow River, and construction of sewage treatment plants in cities along the eastern canal.

Wen stressed scientific decision-making in the design, construction and management of relevant facilities for the water diversion project.

By 2008, 295 water pollution control projects will have been built along the east canal, one of three south-to-north water diversion canals running about 1,300 km across the eastern, middle and western parts of the country.

But 65 projects to cut waste water have already been completed while 66 are under construction and 164 have not started yet.

The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) admitted that water pollution along the east canal was still worrisome. All seven spots monitored by SEPA were reported to be polluted in varying degrees.

Premier Wen said the project would benefit from the ongoing water pricing and water resources management reform. New rules to charge enterprises and residents for disposing of waste water will also be adopted.

On the east canal alone, 24 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) will be invested in reducing pollution and protecting the environment, one third of the budget for the canal.

The south-to-north water diversion project formally started on December 27 last year, and aims to divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water from the Yangtze River to thirsty north China.

But the country will still encourage economic use of water in north China and carry out measures to reduce water consumption, Wen said.

Emergency water supply to Beijing, Tianjin and north China's Hebei Province will a priority of the project, he said.

Backgrounder: China's south-to-north water diversion project

China's water diversion project, to bring relief to China's drought-ridden north by diverting water from the Yangtze River, is another mammoth water conservancy scheme, larger even than the Three Gorges Project.

The massive project is expected to require investment of about 486 billion yuan (about US$59 billion), twice as much as the cost of the Three Gorges Dam project.

Once the project is completed, up to 44.8 billion cubic meters of water will be diverted through three canals to the north, aboutthe annual volume of all the water in the Yellow River in normal years.

The acute water shortages in the valleys of the Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe Rivers, which are home to more than one-third of the country's farmland, grain output, population and gross domestic output, will be significantly alleviated.

The scheme has taken 50 years of planning to get to this starting point, and the project is expected to take another 50 years to be completed.

In the 1950s, the late chairman Mao Zedong who was also the founder of the People's Republic of China, proposed for the first time the idea of bringing water from the country's south to the north.

After 50 years of research and discussion, the overall program for the water transfer project was approved in principle by the State Council on August 23, 2002.

According to the program, China will build three canals, all more than 1,000 km in length, to act as the eastern, central and western diversion corridors.

The three diversion lines will link together four of China's seven major rivers, namely the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe rivers.

The northern part of the 1,789 km Hangzhou-Beijing Grand Canal, built 1,400 years ago, will constitute the main body of the eastern canal, which has been under construction since last year.

Work on the central canal, starting from Jiangsu Province, running through Hubei and Henan provinces and ending in Beijing, is scheduled to start in October this year.

The third waterway, to be finished by 2050, will cut through high mountains near Tibet to link the Yangtze with the headwaters of the Yellow River, which is chronically dried up from overuse.

When the severe water shortage in north China is alleviated, the ecological environment will benefit and the country will be able to sustain social and economic development.

Meanwhile, prevention and alleviation of water pollution in the Yangtze will also be a priority to ensure the diverted water is clean.

As part of the project, 24 billion yuan, or one third of the budget for the diversion canal running through Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, has been earmarked for 379 projects designed to cut waste pollution in areas along the canal, including waste water treatment plants.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2003)