The Beijing municipal government should build five reservoirs to store water from the South-to-North Water Transfer Project when it is partially completed in 2010, local geological authorities have said.

The project will divert 44.8 billion cu m of water a year from the Yangtze River to the northern provinces, including 1 billion by 2010 to Beijing.

The project, which will cost about 500 billion yuan (US$72 billion), is scheduled for completion in 2050.

In a recent report, the Beijing municipal bureau of geological and mineral exploration and development said the reservoirs would be able to store up to 4.7 billion cu m - almost equaling the capacity of the Miyun reservoir, the capital's main water resource.

"The reservoirs could be built near the Yongding, Chaobai, Jucuo, Wenyu and Dashi rivers. They could serve in times of water shortages or other emergency situations," the report said.

"Such reservoirs are a good way to boost the conservation of a city's water resources," Xiao Shaoyong, an official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald on Wednesday.

To ensure sufficient water for the Olympics, Beijing will divert about 300 million cu m of water from neighboring Hebei and Shanxi provinces.

Beijing depends largely on groundwater, but years of exploitation - the city draws an average of 2.5 to 4 billion cu m each year - and pollution have dwindled supplies.

"Such water storage systems are necessary for a large city like Beijing," Xiao said.

But not everyone has the same view.

An official with the Beijing municipal bureau of water affairs, who refused to give her name, said: "The diverted water from the Yangtze should be used for consumption rather than being stored. It is very costly to have water channeled from hundreds of kilometers away."

Cheng Jing, head of the Beijing water affairs department, said the city will maintain its coordinated use of surface, ground and diverted water.

"One emphasis in the future will be more recycling of sewage water," Cheng said.

Experts have said that with more recycling, and better use of surface and diverted water, Beijing's water shortage could be alleviated.

There is no need for more reservoirs, they said.

(China Daily May 10, 2008)