This Day, That Year

Item from Aug 17, 1983, in China Daily: One of the big pump stations in the Tianjin Luanhe River diversion project undergoes trial operations. The operations began on Monday on China's biggest water diversion project, which directs water from the Luanhe River in eastern Hebei province to Tianjin, a major port and industrial city ... The completion of the project will put an end to Tianjin's reliance on the salty Haihe River for drinking water.

Water diversion projects have played an important role in easing the country's water shortages.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which channels water from the Yangtze River to the arid northern regions, has fed Beijing with about 3.3 million cubic meters of the precious resource every day this summer. That includes nearly 2 million cu m for domestic water consumption, with the project providing two-thirds of the capital's daily supply of tap water.