BEIJING — China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project has transferred over 40.8 billion cubic meters of water to the country's arid northern areas for more than six years, official data showed.

More than 130 million people have directly benefited from the mega water diversion project, the world's largest, since the first phase of the project's eastern and middle routes began supplying water.

According to the Ministry of Water Resources, more than 40 big and medium-sized cities received water from the project, which improved water supply in these places.

The project has also helped ecological restoration of rivers and lakes along its eastern and middle routes, with over 5.2 billion cubic meters of water supplied.

Starting from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Central China's Hubei province, the middle route runs across Henan and Hebei provinces before reaching Beijing and Tianjin. It began supplying water in December 2014.

The eastern route began operations in November 2013, transferring water from East China's Jiangsu province to regions including Tianjin and Shandong.