The Danjiangkou Water Resources and Hydroelectric Co., which is responsible for preparing the early stages of the central route's construction, has met the state-set technical standards for the project.

The first project is to raise the height of the Danjiangkou Dam from the present 157 meters to 170 meters. When the project is completed, the dam's storage capacity will be 29.05 billion cubic meters, 11.6 billion cubic meters more than the early stage capacity.

Tang Yuanchang, who is in change of the construction of the central route, estimated that it will take five to six years to increase the height of the dam by 14.6 meters.

More than 2,000 local people inhabited in the construction site and elsewhere in the dam area will soon be moved to other regions.

The Danjiangkou Reservoir, located 800 meters below the confluence of the Hanjiang river and its tributary Danjiang river in northwestern Hubei, central China, was the largest man-made lake in Asia when it was built in 1966. It is to be the principal source of water on the central route of the south-to-north water diversion project.

Completion of the dam project will ease the pressure on the middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang and Yangtze rivers in the flood season and provide high-quality water to the arid areas in northern China.

The main target of the ambitious South-to-North Water Diversion Project is to alleviate the water shortage in Beijing, and neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei province.

"The central route" project is designed to divert water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir on the upper reaches of the Hanjiang river right up to Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, and Hebei, Henan and Hubei provinces. The 1,241-km channel is expected to initially divert 9.5 billion cubic meters of water on an annual basis and 13-14 billion cubic meters by the year 2030.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2002)