STORING more water

andrewwangzhen

The Miyun Reservoir in Beijing has recently seen its water storage volume hit an historic high over the past seven years. But this does not indicate the water shortage situation has experienced a sharp turnaround in the Chinese capital. The water storage volume surged to 1.075 billion cubic metres, an increase of 69.59 million cubic metres compared with last year. Besides 2005, 2006 is the second year that the water storage volume in Miyun Reservoir has exceeded 1 billion cubic metres, sources with the reservoir said. Many people hold the notion that the rising water storage volume is from heavy rainfall in Beijing during the flood season this year. "This is wrong, because the water sources for the reservoir, as well another super-large reservoir, the Guanting Reservoir in Beijing, are from upstream in the northern mountain areas of Beijing, Hebei Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region," explained Jiao Zhizhong, director of the Beijing Water Authority. The large precipitation in recent months concentrated on some central districts, as well as the surrounding Mentougou, Haidian and Shijingshan districts, Jiao explained. "Some rounds of very heavy rainfall only recorded 20 to 30 millimetres in the northern mountain areas of the city," he said, "It is very hard to form water flow to the Miyun Reservoir, which has a capacity of 4.375 billion cubic metres, nearly four times that of the present level." The rising water volume is far from enough to fundamentally change the city's thirst, warned the water expert. Conservation efforts Currently, Beijing is revving up efforts to protect water resources. According to the official, a series of measures are being carried out in Beijing to quench the city's thirst for water. He divided the measures into three aspects. First, the city is striving to save water and is adopting recycled water. Second, the on-going Project of Converting Water from the South to the North will help relieve the city's burden. Third, huge investment has been poured into channelling Hebei's water to Beijing and managing upstream water sources. The third area is the major way to help the city's reservoir store more water. Since the beginning of this year, Beijing has launched a large water source conservation project by directing 20 million yuan (US$2.5 million) into environmental management for upstream water sources annually. Taking one of the water sourcing areas Chicheng County in Hebei Province as an example, among the total investment, 5.75 million yuan (US$718,750) is injected into farmland there, as the county provides almost half of the water for Miyun Reservoir. Rice, the major grain planted in the area, has been replaced with corn since 2006, in a bid to provide abundant water sources for Beijing. Li Hanguang, a farmer, told the Beijing News, a local newspaper, that for the first time corn plantations on his 0.23-hectare farmland didn't yield a bumper harvest this summer, so he got a total of 2,100 yuan (US$262.5) as compensation from the government. As a result of this farmland plantation transformation, Guo Ruiqing, director of the county's water authority, said the first half of the year saw water levels increase by 7.8 million cubic metres. In the meantime, together with Li, many farmers in the county have also dropped sheep grazing since 2001. To date, the total number of sheep in the county has declined to 140,000, only a quarter of the total number in 2001. In addition, a pilot water pollution prevention and control project is also being held in Beijing's water sourcing areas in Hebei.