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.
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)