Chinese government should ensure a sound and fast work on the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, said the country's Vice Premier Li Keqiang, on Friday.

Li made the remarks at a meeting held by the State Council, saying the government should strengthen monitoring and management of the project, and speed up construction on the precondition of good construction quality and high fund-use efficiency.

The government are asked to do a good job on immigrant resettlement of the people in such areas, relic reservation, and environment protection, in a bid to promote a sound, fast, and sustainable development.

"Quality and safety is the lifeline of the project. The government should make efforts to enhance quality monitoring, promote technology innovation, and ascertain responsibility," he said.

Efforts should also go to solve the problems that have direct and close relationship with peoples' lives, in a bid to ensure their rights and interests, he added.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu echoed with Li, ordering the government to seek a balance between sound quality and project progress, and water diversion and pollution control.

Meanwhile, Li appraised the achievements of the project. He said the project has great strategic significance to the country's development, including improving people's living environment, promoting economy in rural areas, stimulating investment and consumption, and easing water shortage in northern areas.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project, consisting of eastern, middle and western routes, is designed to divert water from the water-rich south of the country, mainly the Yangtze River, the country's longest, to the dry north.

The eastern and middle routes are already under construction. The western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water diverted from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by digging tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is still at the blueprint stage.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2008)