Water supplies for Zhuhai, a booming city in south China's Guangdong Province, and for the Macao Special Administrative Region, will double when a water diversion project comes on tap on Tuesday.

Designed to supply fresh water to the region during salt tides, the project can supply one million cubic meters of freshwater to Zhuhai and Macao every day, according to Huo Rongyin, vice mayor of Zhuhai.

About 60 percent of the water supply goes to Zhuhai and the other 40 percent flows into Macao, said Huo, adding that the current daily water consumption of the two regions is around 900,000 cubic meters. The 392 million yuan (about US$ 50 million) project, designed to combat salt tides that have threatened fresh water supplies in the Pearl River Delta in south China, began in January this year.

An existing water pump station on Modaomen waterway, the major source of freshwater in the region, was expanded, a 21.2 km-long water pipeline installed and a new reservoir built to store water.

Both Zhuhai and Macao, its close neighbor, experience salt tides in winter and spring when water reserves decrease and seawater flows in.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2006)