South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Exceeds 80 Billion Cubic Meters

The Middle Route of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project has transferred more than 80 billion cubic meters of water to northern China over nearly 12 years of operation, according to state operator China South-to-North Water Diversion Corporation. The route supplies nearly 118 million residents across 27 large and medium-sized cities in Henan, Hebei, Tianjin, and Beijing. Diverted water now constitutes nearly 80 percent of municipal consumption in central Beijing and almost all of Tianjin's main urban supply, playing a pivotal role in regional water security and ecological replenishment.

Reaching 80 billion cubic meters demonstrates the operational maturity of the world's largest water transfer system. The project has fundamentally restructured northern China's water carrying capacity, securing drinking water for high-density political and economic hubs while providing the ecological baseline necessary to halt and reverse severe regional groundwater over-extraction.

The Middle Route of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project has cumulatively transferred more than 80 billion cubic meters of water to the country's arid northern regions, state media reported on Friday, citing the China South-to-North Water Diversion Corporation. Operating for nearly 12 years, the canal and pipeline corridor provides water resources to 27 large and medium-sized cities across 243 counties and districts in Henan, Hebei, Tianjin, and Beijing, directly benefiting approximately 118 million people. The project has fundamentally altered municipal supply configurations in key northern hubs. In Beijing, diverted southern water accounts for nearly 80 percent of the water supply in the central urban area. In Tianjin, the main urban district now relies almost entirely on the diversion project for its municipal water. In surrounding Hebei province, the network serves roughly 70 percent of the provincial population, supporting ongoing urban-rural water supply integration. Water quality along the route has consistently maintained Class II or above under China's surface water quality standards, enabling the reappearance of sensitive aquatic organisms such as freshwater jellyfish, according to project operators. Beyond municipal consumption, the project has served as an ecological lifeline for North China's river and aquifer systems. Decades of intensive extraction had severely depleted regional groundwater tables. Project authorities stated that dedicated ecological water replenishment has reversed this long-term decline, restoring full, continuous flow to 50 rivers across the region—including the Fuyang, Qili, and Hutuo rivers—while maintaining continuous flows along the Yongding River. To manage hydraulic safety across vast geographical distances, the Middle Route relies on domestically developed monitoring systems. Operators have deployed more than 100,000 safety monitoring instruments and over 5,000 automated data collection stations along the route. These feeds are integrated into a digital twin dispatch system used for structural monitoring, seasonal flood defense, and winter ice-period conveyance.