Quenching parched throats in the north

China's massive South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) Project is designed to transfer water from the water-rich south, mainly the Yangtze River, to the drought-prone north. It consists of three routes: the eastern, the central, and the western.

The eastern route stretches 1,857 km. Water from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be taken from Jiangdu in Jiangsu province, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, to the northern part of Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Hebei and the Tianjin municipality. Construction on this route began in 2002 and the first phase is scheduled to be completed by 2013.

The central route stretches 1,432 km. Water from the Danjiangkou reservoir, on the upper reaches of the Hanjiang River (a tributary of the Yangtze), will be channeled to Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Henan and Hebei. Construction on the central route began in 2003. The first phase was scheduled to be completed in 2010, but has been postponed to 2014, because of environmental concerns and resettlement issues.