Clean Fresh Water Supply to Hong KongSouth China's Guangdong Province Monday started to upgrade the Dongjiang-Shenzhen water supply project so as to ensure pollution-free water supply to Hong Kong and its neighboring city Shenzhen.The project, located in nearby Dongguan city, was built in 1964. It has so far supplied Hong Kong with more than 11 billion cubic meters of water, accounting for 80 percent of the fresh water to Hong Kong. Long-term agricultural development along the water supply route of the project has maintained nice ecological conditions. However, fast economic growth in Guangdong, rapid urbanization and the increase of migrants to the province in recent years has polluted the water. To deal with pollution, the province issued seven regulations on water quality protection in the 1990s, and built 70 pollution treatment projects between 1993 and 1997 with a total investment of 720 million yuan (about 86.4 million US dollars), keeping the water quality up to the national standard. Local officials said the current upgrading work will cost 4.7 billion yuan, which is expected to be finished in 2003. By laying tunnels, all the pollutants will be prevented from entering into the water flow, thus ensuring the cleanliness of the water going to Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Zhou Rifang, in charge of the province's water conservation, said that when completed, the project will be able to provide 1.1 billion cubic meters of water annually to Hong Kong, 873 million cubic meters of water to Shenzhen, and 400 million cubic meters of water to Dongguan's neighboring towns. Dongjiang River is a part of the Pearl River, the main source of the clean and fresh water for Shenzhen and Hong Kong. |
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