May 25, 2009

China has earmarked RMB53.87 billion for its huge South-to-North Water Diversion Project as of the end of April, and agriculture finds itself part of the picture. 

 

The figure was RMB8.2 billion more than the end-of November figure of RMB45.67 billion. The project is designed to divert water from the water-rich south, mainly the Yangtze, China's longest river, up to the dry north.

 

Head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said several key projects along the eastern route have been completed, but the Danjiangkou Dam in central China's Hubei Province, the source of diverted water along the central route, is still under construction.

 

The huge water diversion project consists of eastern, central and western routes, and the western route is meant to replenish the Yellow River from water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze. While the eastern and central routes are already under construction, the western route is still at the planning stages.

 

There is a also the concern that the Yellow River is losing up to one-third of its water,  according to Li Guoying, deputy chief of the Yellow River Flood Prevention and Drought Relief Headquarters.

 

He said the volume of water flowing into the waterway from last July to mid-May was 29.3 billion cubic meters, 31-percent less than the same period in normal years. Li also noted that water shortage was severe in the Yellow River drainage area.

 

That could be troubling, for the Yellow River is a key water provider for China's agriculture industry.

 

The agriculture sector uses three-quarters of the country's water supply to irrigate 85 percent of its arable land, compared to just 10 percent in the US. And as water consumption is expected to keep rising over the years, China's Ministry of Water Resources predicts that a "serious water crisis" could occur by the year 2030.

 

Peter Bosshard of International Rivers, a river-protection environmental group, said transferring water from the Yangtze tributaries to the thirsty plains of northern China may lead to the environmental collapse of the Han river, the Three Gorges reservoir, and the Yangtze delta.

 

Bosshard said to resolve its water crisis, China needs to phase out thirsty industries and agricultural crops in the drought-prone north, and replace them with more environmentally-sound practices.

                     

US$1 = RMB6.84932 (May 25)