Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua urged solid efforts to ensure the planning, design and construction management of follow-up projects in the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, in order to provide strong water resources guarantees for building new development patterns and promoting high-quality development, during an inspection tour in North China’s Hebei province on May 29.

Hu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited several reservoirs in Xushui district of Baoding city to learn about the operations and management of the first phase of the middle route of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and about over-extraction of groundwater in North China; he also learned about the research and planning on follow-up projects.

Noting that the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is a major support for reinforcing and improving the country’s water supply and for solving the problems of water resources, water ecology and water environment in the northern region of China in the long run, Hu said comparative studies on planning and construction plans must be carried out in a timely manner, to determine the construction scale and overall planning in a scientific way, and to accelerate building the main framework of the national water network.

Water conservation should be a priority, Hu said, and urged promoting water conservation in all sectors and industries.

Efforts should be made to strengthen operations, maintenance and safety management of the project to ensure security of the project, water supply and water quality.

Flood resources should be fully used to increase ecological water supplement, in order to accelerate improvement of the water ecological environment.

Operations and management of reservoirs should be strengthened, with restoration of all kinds of facilities, to make sure the flood season could pass safely, Hu said.