Beijing is considering diverting water from the Yellow River in an attempt to relieve its chronic water shortage, which is rapidly approaching a crisis level with the capital's overpopulation and worsening droughts.
An official at the Beijing Water Authority yesterday confirmed a report by the Beijing Times that a new diversion project channelling water from the river through a 500-kilometre canal had emerged as the new hope for the grave water woes.
The municipality also planned to pump more water from arid Hebei and Shanxi provinces, increase groundwater extraction this year and step up research on desalination, the report said. Environmentalists warn that water diversions and the overuse of groundwater may carry dire long-term consequences.
They also lambast the capital as having set a terrible example of urban management, marked by runaway expansion at the expense of neighbouring areas.
The drinking water sources for the municipality of nearly 20 million people - the Miyun and Guanting reservoirs - can barely supply half of the household water consumption, which stands at 2.5 billion cubic metres a year. A 12-year drought has made the shortage worse. Beijing has not seen any precipitation since October 25 - which was 92 days ago.
Years of pumping more and more water from sources, including strategic reserves deep in the ground, had lowered the level of underground water by 1.2 metres a year since 1999, the authority's director Cheng Jing was quoted as saying.