The old part of the dam, which was finished in 1973 after 15 years of construction, has been reinforced to cope with the increased water volume, said Tang Yuanchang, deputy general manager of a South-to-north Water Divert Project Middle Route Water Source Corporation.
According to project plans, about 180,000 people in Hubei and 150,000 people in Henan are to be relocated before the middle route is completed and water diverted to northern China in 2014.
On Tuesday, northern Hebei Province began diverting 200 million cubic meters of water from three reservoirs to Beijing via a canal that will eventually form part of the middle route of the project.
The water is expected to arrive in Tuancheng Lake in Beijing early next month. It will take about six months for all 200 million cubic meters of water to reach Beijing.
Du Bingzhao said Hebei itself is one of China's driest provinces. The province's per capita water consumption is one seventh of the national average.
"Even so, the province still has to provide water to Beijing to ease its water shortage, which showed how urgent the parched northern China is in need of water for its social and economic development. And it is also why we picked up the pace in building the south-to-north water diversion projoect," Du said.
