China's huge south-to-north water diversion project entered a crucial stage as the dam heightening project at Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China began construction on Monday.

The dam will be heightened by 15 meters to reach 175 meters in about five years, which is a key project to ensure the water diversion of 20 billion cubic meters to the arid northern and northwestern parts of the country by 2010, according to Ning Yuan, deputy director of the South-North Water Diversion Project Office of the State Council.

The Danjiangkou Reservoir was built in 1958 as a pivot of the massive south-to-north water diversion project, and was put into operation in 1973 with water storage level standing at a height of 157 meters.

Upon completion of the dam heightening project, the storage capacity of the reservoir will be enlarged by 11.6 billion cubic meters, with area expanding from 745 sq km to 1,050 sq km, the official said.

The Chinese government has all along paid high attention to the construction of the huge water diversion project, which has been placed on the top agenda of government ever since the 1950s.

In light of the overall development plan of the gigantic project, water will be diverted from the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the northern and northwestern parts of China through the west, central and east routes. And construction of the east and central routes began in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Between 2002 and 2010, some 20 billion cubic meters of water will be diverted from south to north, with about 9.5 billion cubic meters of water diverting from the Danjiangkou Reservoir.

In about 40 to 50 years, water volume totaling 44.8 billion cubic meters will be diverted under the project, which equals to the total water volume in the Yellow River, the country's second largest river.

According to the official, the dam heightening project of the Danjiangkou Reservoir will be completed by 2010. By then, water will be diverted through a 1,420-km-long trunk canal to moisten and irrigate the arid northern lands.

Upon completion of the total project, about a dozen provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in north China including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi with a total population of 300 million will benefit.

The above-mentioned areas produce one third of the country's grain output and GDP with merely one fifth of the country's average per capita water resource.

The huge water diversion project, with a total cost forecast at 486 billion yuan (60 billion US dollars), will have a far-reaching impact on the sustainable development of the country, and benefit generation after generation, said Wu Xinmu, famous economist and professor with Wuhan University.

China is short in water resources in general, said the professor, with average per capita occupancy of water resources accounting for merely one fourth of the world's average.

Worse, the distribution of water resources is uneven in the country, which is rich in the south but deficient in the north

The strategic concept of developing the gigantic water diversion project was first put forward by the late Chairman Mao Zedong in 1952 and has since been listed among the top tasks in the Chinese government's work reports in the recent five decades.

The Chinese government and people are making all-out efforts to turn the water diversion dream into reality.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2005)