Thirst Quenching

来源 :CHINAFRICA | 被引量 : 0次 | 上传用户:tedious
下载到本地 , 更方便阅读
声明 : 本文档内容版权归属内容提供方 , 如果您对本文有版权争议 , 可与客服联系进行内容授权或下架
论文部分内容阅读
  ImagIne Beijingers drinking water brought to the capital from more than 1,000 km away, from the Danjiangkou Reservoir on a branch of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province! Incredible but now it becomes true.
  Water through the south-to-north diversion project arrived in Beijing on December 28, 2014. The water diversion project, under construction since the early 2000s, has seen the completion of its first phase. People in Beijing and other dry areas in north China are finally able to drink water from the Yangtze River. The project, the largest of its kind in the world, is designed to take water from the country’s longest river to the dry areas in the north.
  It has three routes: eastern, middle and western. Construction of the eastern route started in 2002, with the middle one following in 2003. Work on the western route is yet to begin.
  Upon completion, the project is expected to divert up to 44.8 billion cubic meters of water per year to more than 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, benefiting nearly 100 million people. Up to 600,000 jobs are expected to be created.
   Engineering marvels
  The project was approved by the State Council in December 2002, after nearly half a century of debate. It will run across the watershed of four major rivers - the Yangtze, Huaihe, the Yellow River and the Haihe.
  Due to the immense length of the water diversion line and the large area it will cover, the project involves a broad range of engineering techniques: the construction of reservoirs, lakes, canals, watercourses, dams, pumping stations, tunnels, aqueducts, culverts, inverted siphons, channels and much more.
  The first stage in the eastern route became operational in 2013, sending water to east China’s Shandong Province. The middle route is the most attention-grabbing as it takes water to the capital. The main canal on this route is 1,432 km long with a 1,196.36-km open channel.
  In the first stage, the middle route will pump almost 9.5 billion cubic meters of water - one-sixth the volume of the Yellow River - to the parched north every year, covering over 20 major cities via canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou Reservoir.


  Beijing’s per-capita water resource is less than 100 cubic meters, far below the 500 cubic meters, which is considered acute water shortage by international standards.
  On December 12, 2014, over 1,400 km of canals and pipelines began carrying water from the Yangtze to the north, a feat hailed as a major victory. President Xi Jinping sent his congratulations, saying the success had come through ceaseless effort by hundreds of thousands of people.    A thirsty city
  Beijing needs at least 3.6 billion cubic meters of water a year for its 20 million residents and local businesses. But in the past decade it got only 2.1 billion cubic meters annually.
  “The city is facing a severe water crisis,” said Xu Xinyi, a water conservancy specialist with Beijing Normal University. “It’s like five people being stuffed into a room designed for two.”
  The Yangtze water will make up a third of Beijing’s total supply, hopefully narrowing the huge gap between its annual water demand and supply. With the Yangtze water piping in, the capital will have 150 cubic meters per person, an increase of 50 percent, according to figures provided by the Beijing water authority.
  Its neighboring province Hebei will also benefit with the supply of more than 3 billion cubic meters of water annually.
  “It will alleviate the water shortage in Hebei and help promote sustainable development in the local society and economy,” said Zhang Qingwei, Governor of the province.
其他文献
There is a direct link between economic growth and electricity supply, economists often say. In Africa, where only two in every 10 households are connected to electricity, the problem of power shortag
期刊
On December 20, 2014, hW Raid Security, a joint venture (JV) between China’s Shandong Huawei Security Group and Raid Private Security of South Africa, was launched in Johannesburg. It was the first ti
期刊
ON a fateful day in 2000, when a former english teacher from east China’s Zhejiang Province strode into an auditorium in Berlin to deliver the keynote speech at a mega Internet conference, an unnervin
期刊
Some foreign companies recently shut down their factories in China. Japanese watchmaker Citizen shuttered its manufacturing base in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province, Panasonic announced pla
期刊
Sun Xiaowei, a young villager who owns 90 mu (6 hectares) of farmland in Wangwudao, a village in Liaoning Province in northeast China, saw his income soaring last year. “I transferred the management r
期刊
Despite all their efforts, agricultural expert Shi Jingui could not figure out why his organization’s projects in Africa were not producing expected results.  Shi, who has been working in Africa as a
期刊
Legendary South african leader nelson Mandela, whose influence had spread worldwide, is a household name in China. One of his ardent fans, artist Li Bin, created a giant oil painting, titled Mandela,
期刊
Are you a foreigner puzzled by oft-heard expressions like “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and “comprehensively deepening reform?”Then help is at hand with a program launched in December to en
期刊
The tale of South Sudan in 2014 read like a tragedy: civil war broke out in December 2013, more than 10,000 were killed, and at least 120,000 people became homeless. The economy took its cue from thes
期刊
Prominent Chinese nuclear physicist Yu min received the State Supreme Science and Technology Award at a ceremony for China’s most prestigious awards in science and technology held in Beijing on Januar
期刊