Guangdong floats plan to divert Xijiang water to its eastern cities

The Guangdong government is planning to send water from the Xijiang, or the West River, to Dongguan and Shenzhen to ease supply shortages, the provincial governor said yesterday.

Although Shenzhen had the Dongjiang, or East River, Hong Kong had priority over its water, said Zhu Xiaodan at a regional cooperation forum in Guangzhou.

The project had an initial budget of 25 billion yuan (HK$31.6 billion), he said.

"Guangzhou has already been drinking from the Xijiang. The … project would bring its water to the eastern Pearl River Delta, covering the populated areas of Dongguan and Shenzhen," Zhu said.

The Xijiang stretches 2,200km from its source in Wuzhou in Guangxi east through Guangdong before joining the delta.

He stressed the importance of maintaining high environmental standards upstream as it passed through Guangxi. Zhu made the comments in a meeting on development planning for the Pearl River and Xijiang economic belt between Guangxi and western Guangdong.