New water channel planned to feed Beijing

BEIJING -- A new channel will be built to divert water from Hebei province to Beijing, and will supplement supply from the south-to-north water diversion project.

The new project will bring around 150 million cubic meters of water from Hebei to Beijing's suburban districts of Tongzhou, the capital's planned "subsidiary administrative center;" and Daxing, the location of the city's new airport, a spokesperson with the Beijing office of the south-to-north water diversion project said Thursday.

Construction of the channel, which will involve 60 km of pipes, is expected to begin next year, according to the spokesperson.

The middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project is designed to provide Beijing with 1 to 1.2 billion cubic meters of water annually.

The allocated "southern water" for Tongzhou and Daxing, however, is far below the demand needs, he said.

The middle route, which begins at Danjiangkou Reservoir in Central china's Hubei province and runs across Henan and Hebei provinces before reaching Beijing and Tianjin, began channeling water on Dec. 12, 2014, as part of the project's first phase.

Thus far, 1.6 billion cubic meters of water has been redirected to Beijing, benefiting more than 11 million people.

The new channel will shift part of the southern water flow bound for Hebei to Beijing. It will secure Beijing's water supply should there be damage to any of the south-to-north channels.