Image from The New York Times
A huge, I said HUGE, 50-year, multi-billion-dollar river diversion project is underway in China.
The project creates three channels that connect the Yangtze river with the Hai, Huai, and Yellow rivers farther north. Each of these channels will be over 600 miles long and will carry about 680 billion gallons of water every year—as much as the entire current outflow from the Yellow river— to drought-stricken northern regions.
The first phase of work began in late 2002 on the eastern and middle channels. This phase is estimated to cost about $19 billion and will take five to ten years to complete. The ultimate cost of the river diversion mega-project—the largest ever planned— is expected to exceed that of the $24 billion Three Gorges Dam.
The Chinese government argues that the river diversion project is badly needed. According to China Daily, water shortages affect two-thirds of China's 600 major cities, costing $14.5 billion each year.
Wow!
Recent Comments