Delays block China's giant water scheme

A multi-billion-dollar project to divert water from southern China to the arid north is already four years behind schedule. 

The news comes as parts of northern and central China struggle to cope with severe drought. 

Officials recently admitted that water would not flow along the project's central route - a total of three are planned - until 2014. 

But there appears to be a difference of opinion about what is actually causing the delay. 

Whatever the reason, the entire scheme is unlikely to solve northern China's dire water shortage, even when it is finished. 

To solve that problem, experts say the region must conserve what little water it has. 

Environmental problems 

China first started considering building the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the 1950s. 

The need is obvious. An area along three major rivers in northern China has 35% of the country's population, but only 7% of its water resources. 

A recent severe drought is a reminder of just how dry some parts of China can be. 

Nearly four million people are short of water. Livestock and crops are also under threat. 

It is problems like this that prompted numerous studies into the water diversion scheme, which finally gained the go-ahead in 2001. 

The $62bn (£42bn) project includes eastern, central and western routes that will divert water from China's Yangtze River to the parched north. 

Some parts of the eastern and central routes have already been completed, although work has yet to start on the western route.

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