The third phase of a project to supply the city with cleaner water from the Yangtze River has recently got under way.

Upon completion at the end of 2007, the 250 million yuan (US$30.8 million) project will be able to increase the city's daily water supply to 2.18 million tons from the current 1.3 million.

Further extensions of the project, which aim to pipe in not only more, but also cleaner water from the Yangtze River, are being planned, said Zhang Zhong, an official from the Shanghai Water Affairs Bureau.

But Zhang did not release any details of the planned construction and refused to give a date as to when the third phase of the project would be finished.

Zhang Jiayi, director of the bureau, noted that Shanghai, with many rivers close by, was lacking in water of good quality. This was mainly due to pollution, especially that of the Huangpu River, currently Shanghai's main water source.

Only 20 percent of water in the rivers can be used. And only 1 percent of the city's river water meets the country's drinking water standards before processing.

However, the people of Shanghai consume more water than the national average.

After years of work to clean it up, the Huangpu River, which constitutes more than 85 percent of the city's supply, is still left wanting as far as quality is concerned. Water from the Yangtze River is both plentiful and cleaner.

The recent spell of hot weather has only served to increase daily water consumption, and usage is still on the rise.

On July 5, for example, Shanghai used a remarkable 9.38 million tons of water.

It is expected that the city's water demand will soon exceed 10 million tons per day as the hot weather continues. This figure is dangerously close to the maximum supply capacity of 10.58 million tons.

In mid-2004, the Shanghai Water Affairs Bureau announced a program designed to improve the city's water quality.

By 2010, it is hoped that residents of Shanghai will be able to drink water directly from the tap, without the need to boil it first.

In the early 1990s, a project was started, finding ways of exploiting the Yangtze River as Shanghai's second source of water.

After the completion of the first two phases, the project is now delivering 1.3 million tons of clean water to the city every day.

The third-phase of construction, which started late last month, will bring another 880,000 tons of Yangtze River water to the city. This means that the Yangtze will supply 20 percent of the city's water.

The first part of the third-phase construction, a 4.3-million-ton pumping station and a 17-kilometre-long piping system, will be finished in June next year.

The second part will include a reservoir and a series of pumping stations.

(China Daily August 2, 2005)