Authorities cooperate to keep capital's water safe

Beijing's water authority and health and family planning commission signed a cooperation agreement on Friday to ensure the city's water remains safe after October, when water from Yangtze River will flow to the city through the South-to-North Water Diversion project.

"Some cities saw their running water become yellowish after they introduced water from outside," said Jin Shudong, head of the water authority. "The authority is doing its best to guarantee that the water people in Beijing will be using is safe."

Water plants in Beijing lead the country's water treatment industry as they have been using new technologies such as absorption by activated carbon and ozone disinfecting to treat water, said Yang Huaijin, a deputy inspector of the authority.

The water authority also monitors 13 stations for the city's water quality, and has been publicizing the data on its website every three months since January 2013.

In December 2013, the city's health and family planning commission also set up 20 stations to monitor the quality of drinking water. Those data, available on the website of Beijing Health Inspection, are updated every five seconds, according to Lei Haichao, deputy director of the commission.

"This will significantly improve our ability to cope with emergencies," he said.

The South-to-North Water Diversion project will bring about 1 billion cubic meters of water to the city and help relieve its water shortages, Jin said.

The city consumed about 3.6 billion cubic meters of water in 2013, he said.

According to Jin, water for domestic use used about 1.6 billion cu m. Agriculture consumed about 900 million cu m and industry about 500 million cu m. The environment, including lakes, rivers and soil, retained about 600 million cu m.

In order to provide enough water, the city exploited about 400 million cu m of surface water and 2 billion cu m of underground water. It also got 800 million cu m of water from recycling.

In addition, 370 million cu m of water flowed from neighboring Hebei to the city last year, marking the largest annual volume of water the province has transferred to the national capital since 2008, Jin said.

"We would like to give our cordial thanks to Hebei, as it is also facing water shortages," he said.

Jin said he hoped there would be even more water coming to Beijing.

"Beijing has been overexploiting its underground water resources since 1999. We exploit 500 million cu m more than they can replenish," he said.