China’s River Diversion Mega-Project

They say behind the ever-prospering cities and economic status of China lies the parched reality of over-exploitation of groundwater in the past 50 years, low rainfall and rivers running dry in the Northern part of China. Already the Yellow River has often gone dry in its lower reaches in recent decades and some of the Hai River tributaries almost dried out throughout the year.

Hence to better utilize the water resources available to China, the People's Republic of China has commenced a multi-billion dollar South-North Water Transfer Project in 2002.

This infrastructure project would run across decades and the idea to go forward with a project which is biggest of its kind is inspired form Mao Zedong’s (A Han Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader) quote:  "Southern water is plentiful, northern water scarce. If at all possible, borrowing some water would be good."
The main prospect of the project is to divert water from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River and Hai River to the Northern parts of China.

Since the introduction of the project, it has created widespread controversy by putting forward the issues like wastage of resources, increase in number of migrant people and massive wastage of water through evaporation and pollution. Indians have opposed the project saying that, might affect the flow of Brahmaputra in Assam. Moreover, the project's huge cost would make the water expensive for consumers and some experts also say that it could cause an environmental disaster.

Government officials and defenders of the project claim the Yangtze River has a plentiful supply of water with 96% of the water currently flowing into the Pacific Ocean. They argue that transferring one portion to the poorly irrigated areas of the North could solve the North's water scarcity issue.

The project is running 4 years late due to major delays. Initially the project officials said that environmental concerns were holding up the scheme. But later they confirmed that the need to relocate 300,000 people to make way for the reservoir's expansion. This is proving a challenge because the area is already densely populated and there is little land for migrants.

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Nevertheless, China has shown in the past that it is unafraid to tackle massive engineering projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam.
So, what do you think Should China go ahead with this Project by turning down all the possible oppositions or they should regulate other options like controlling water pollution, promoting water conservation or go ahead with some major plans of using seawater through desalination?