The main route of China’s huge south-north water transfer project has been put back four years because of pollution concerns, reported Xinhua. The 1,267km central route, which will run from the Danjiangkou Dam in Hubei province to Beijing, will now be completed in 2014 and not 2010, as previously planned.
A Hubei environmental official, Zou Qingping, was quoted as saying that once water is drawn from the dam, it will reduce flows along the Han River that cuts past it and thereby exacerbate water quality problems in the province. This means that Hubei needs to build more water treatment plants and ecological restoration facilities.