CHINA is working on a £21 billion scheme to divert water from Tibet to the parched Yellow River through a 300km (190-mile) network of tunnels and canals.

The country that has dammed the Yangtze River and built the highest railway is undeterred by the challenges and the cost of a project that has been under discussion for more than half a century.

The scheme will form the western route of the south-north water transfer project in China and will join the eastern and central routes, which are under construction. The lines will draw water from the much larger Yangtze River to supply the north and the capital, Beijing, where water is scarce.

Li Guoying, director of the Yellow River water conservancy committee, said: “When the economic and social development of the northwest reaches a certain level and the potential of water saving measures is exhausted, this project will be launched.”

No starting date has been given for the project, although experts believe that it may get under way in 2010. The relay of tunnels and canals would take water from the Yalung, Dadu and Jinsha rivers, which rise on the Tibetan plateau and flow into southwestern Sichuan province, down the 3,000-mile-long Yellow River.

The scheme would provide about 4 billion cubic metres (5¼ billion cu gals) of water a year initially, rising to 17 billion cu m a year in later decades.

The western route would cost £21 billion while the entire south-north project is estimated at £36 billion. The expense and engineering challenges involved with building the western route have sparked heated debate.

Guo Kai, a veteran hydroengineer, has offered an alternative design, which he says would be longer, at 1,240km, but less costly and complicated to build — at £16 billion and with fewer tunnels. His scheme would take only a decade to complete and provide 200 billion cu m of water a year. He said: “It can quench the thirst of all China. The water supply can last for 1,000 years.”

Another significant difference between the two schemes is that the government plan requires diversion of water from an altitude of 4,150m where the water is frozen almost permanently. Mr Guo’s scheme would take water at altitudes more than 500m lower and rely on dams rather than tunnels.

Mr Guo said that his work on the Government’s western route had convinced him that it was impossible and had prompted him to devise his alternative diversion.

The authorities have refused to consider his proposals. He said: “In China, the Government is both sportsman and referee.”

The initial phases of the south-north water diversion project, begun in 2002 and expected to take half a century to complete, are expected to be completed by 2010. Some sections may be ready before 2008 to provide better water supplies to northern China before the Olympics in Beijing.

AQUEDUCTS SPAN CENTURIES

The Roman-built Pont du Gard aqueduct once formed part of a 31-mile aqueduct supplying 167,000 cu m of water daily to Nîmes, France

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