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Major Water-Conservancy Project to Start in Sichuan
The construction of the Zipingpu Reservoir is to start soon on the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The six-year project is aimed at protecting the Dujiang Dam (Dujiangyan), an ancient but still operating water conservancy system that continues to serve local agriculture, an official of the Sichuan provincial planning committee said Thursday.
The Zipingpu Reservoir, nine km from the Dujiangyan, is a large-scale undertaking able to irrigate farmland, prevent floods and provide water resources.
The project will cost 6.2 billion yuan (about US$746 million), and the reservoir will have a storage capacity of 1.1 billion cu m. The dam wall will be 156 m high. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2006. The reservoir will have a normal water storage capacity of 800 million cubic meters.
The International Cooperation Bank of Japan has provided a loan of US$260 million for the project.
Upon completion, the project will be able to irrigate 11 million mu (about 730,000 hectares) of farmland in the Dujiangyan area, and provide water resources at a speed 50 cubic meter per second for this provincial capital.
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