Water supplies for Zhuhai, a booming city in south China's Guangdong Province, and for the Macao Special
Administrative Region, will double when a water diversion project
comes on tap on Tuesday.
Designed to supply fresh water to the region during salt tides,
the project can supply one million cubic meters of freshwater to
Zhuhai and Macao every day, according to Huo Rongyin, vice mayor of
Zhuhai.
About 60 percent of the water supply goes to Zhuhai and the
other 40 percent flows into Macao, said Huo, adding that the
current daily water consumption of the two regions is around
900,000 cubic meters. The 392 million yuan (about US$ 50 million)
project, designed to combat salt tides that have threatened fresh
water supplies in the Pearl River Delta in south China, began in
January this year.
An existing water pump station on Modaomen waterway, the major
source of freshwater in the region, was expanded, a 21.2 km-long
water pipeline installed and a new reservoir built to store
water.
Both Zhuhai and Macao, its close neighbor, experience salt tides
in winter and spring when water reserves decrease and seawater
flows in.
(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2006)