China is starting work on the world’s largest water lifting project, the purpose of which is to challenge nature itself.
Ranbir Singh, senior journalist
China is starting work on the world’s largest water lifting project, the purpose of which is to challenge nature. Through thousands of kilometers of artificial canals, aqueducts and tunnels crossing the mountains, China plans to deliver fresh water to the parched industrial centers in its north. China’s geography has always been a double-edged sword. The Yangtze and Yellow River systems have supported human civilizations in eastern China for thousands of years; These have provided fertile floodplains and supported a large population, although the northern and far western areas are dry or mountainous, making them less suitable for farming.
This geographical disparity is clearly visible, because 94% of China’s population lives in the eastern part. Beijing and other cities in the north have long been major centers of population, agriculture, and trade. As China’s population and wealth grew in the middle of the 20th century, water resources began to dwindle. Northern cities such as Beijing depended on groundwater, which became overexploited as urban and industrial demand grew. Additionally, the nearby Gobi Desert was also expanding, exacerbating the problem of water scarcity due to desertification.
By the early 1950s, it became clear that providing adequate water to its growing population would be a major challenge for northern China. In 1952, Mao Zedong proposed to supply water from the south to the parched northern areas. This concept was finally approved in the year 2002, after which the ‘South to North Water Transfer Project’ was started.
The objective of this project was to create a network of aqueducts, tunnels, reservoirs and dams through which water could be transported from the water-rich south to the water-scarce northern areas. The project’s ‘Eastern Route’ starts near Yangzhou, using a main branch of the Yangtze River. Water is pumped from the Yangtze River into the Jing-Hong Grand Canal—the world’s longest artificial canal. Next, this water crosses the Yellow River through an underground tunnel and is transported through aqueducts to the city of Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing. The eastern route, which is more than 1,100 kilometers long, was expected to deliver water by 2013, but was delayed; Water finally arrived in 2017, benefiting 10 million people in Tianjin.
The central route, which had no existing infrastructure, was more challenging. Starting from the Danjiangkou Reservoir, the Danjiangkou Dam was raised 15 metres, so water could flow ‘downstream’ to the north without any pumping stations. More than 300,000 people had to be displaced for this construction. The route, which includes important structures such as the Shahe Aqueduct, is more than 1,200 kilometers long and reached Beijing in 2014. By 2030, it is expected to transfer 12 cubic kilometers of water annually.
The western route is still in the planning stage due to its enormous challenges. The plan involves building waterways and tunnels linking the Yangtze and Yellow rivers through the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which lies three to five kilometers above sea level. This route would require engineers to cut through mountains, making it the most difficult and ambitious part of the project. Estimated to be completed by 2050, it could bring 17 cubic kilometers of water annually to the northern provinces, meeting the needs of about 100 million people.
There is no international discussion about such huge projects, which cause major changes in the composition and geophysical properties of the Earth, because the mega projects that China has run in these 40 years have also changed the movement of the Earth. Thankfully, development of huge nuclear bombs and their explosions have been curbed. If the Earth is disturbed even slightly, it will create an uproar and it will not take long for human existence to be destroyed.
The project aims to address water scarcity, but it has also raised serious environmental concerns. These artificial waterways disrupt the natural flow of rivers, due to which 600 rivers have become extinct. Industrial waste and sewage have contaminated these waterways, as seen in the Danjiangkou Reservoir, where industrial cities such as Xi’an dump waste into the Han River.
Furthermore, construction of the western route passing through a seismically active area could cause landslides and environmental destruction. The cost of the project, estimated at $62 billion, does not include the expense of maintaining the vast network of canals, aqueducts, dams, tunnels and other structures. (These are the personal views of the author)
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