Xi Jinping‘s south to north water diversion project will connect four of the country’s major rivers, directing the precious natural resource to drier areas in northern China.
The £49billion scheme will take water from the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe rivers, carrying 44.8 billion cubic metres of water a year to cities in the north which are at risk of drought.
Three routes will span eastern, western and central regions of China as part of the scheme, which took 50 years to conceive and will take another half century to build, according to reports.
It will help supply households, industry and agriculture in northern China, where the area’s rising population has placed much demand on the resource.
Groundwater has historically been over-exploited in the north, leading to shortages in rural areas, according to water-technology.net.
Chinese dictator Mao Zedong first proposed the idea of transferring water from south to north in 1952, with the aim of boosting water supplies in cities including the capital, Beijing.
Work started on the eastern leg of the scheme in December 2002 while construction started on the central section a year later. The eastern route will be just over 717 miles long and requires 23 pumping stations.
While the scheme aims to improve water security in the north, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced as a result, while it has also caused damage to the environment, according to internetgeography.net.
Neuroject.com hails the scheme as one of the world’s largest construction projects in 2024.
Others include NEOM Ciy in Saudi Arabia, which has a total cost of £371bn, according to Neuroject.com.
The Madison Square Garden Sphere in Las Vegas also appears on the list along with the International Space Station and London’s Crossrail, now known as the Elizabeth Line.
Another scheme in China is the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, credited by neuroject.com as the longest bridge-tunnel system sea crossing in the world.
The 34 mile long bridge–tunnel system is made up of a series of three, cable-stayed bridges, an undersea tunnel and four man made islands.
