Currently the Xijiang River Water-Diversion Project is soundly underway, which will be put into operation before September 30 according to the plan.

Wan Qingliang, Mayor of GuangZhou Municipal Government, inspected the progress of the Xijiang River Water-Diversion Project on July 25, for the purpose of ensuring that the water of Xijiang River could be diverted into Guangzhou before September 30, improving the quality of supplied water in Guangzhou to 100 percent attainment and guaranteeing water safety for the residents and the Asian Games.

Xijiang River Water-Diversion Project, with a length of 71.6 kilometres, a water intake scale of 3.5 million cubic metres per day, and a total investment of 8.953 billion yuan, was listed as one of the ten events improving people’s livelihood in 2010.

On July 25, Mayor Wan Qingliang and his companions reached Xiachen Water Intake Pump Station to listen to the introduction of the responsible persons on the progress of the overall project. They introduced the project was well underway, 87.91 percent of water intake station and Yagang Pump Station had been completed, and 69.6 kilometres of pipes were laid, accounting for 96.7 percent of the total range, so water of Xijiang River was very likely to be diverted into Guangzhou before September 30. To ensure the safety of supplied water, a well for measuring water quality is used per kilometer to monitor the underground pipes in real time. Should there is a leak from the pipe, it can be repaired within two minutes after warning.

Sources have said the quality of water supplied in downtown area and Panyu District will first meet the new national standards in advance this year.

With 106 indexes of water quality reaching the standards, the total population drinking pure water will be 3.7 million in Guangzhou by the end of this year.