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China’s new mega tunnel will send water from the Three Gorges Dam to Beijing

  • Yinjiangbuhan tunnel, connecting to a 1,400km open canal, is expected to take 10 years to build and cost US$8.9 billion
  • China’s broader infrastructure plan is a move towards boosting food production by as much as 540 million tonnes

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The planned Yinjiangbuhan tunnel will drain water from the Three Gorges Dam, pictured, to the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze. Photo: Xinhua
Stephen Chen
China has launched a new tunnelling project to send water from the Three Gorges Dam to Beijing as part of a massive infrastructure plan to boost food production and the economy.
The Yinjiangbuhan tunnel will drain water from the Three Gorges – the world’s largest dam – to the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River.
Reaching the Danjiangkou reservoir at the lower reaches of the Han, the water will head north as far as Beijing via the middle line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, a 1,400km-long (870-mile) open canal.
The Yinjiangbuhan tunnel will send water from the Three Gorges Dam to Beijing. Red lines represent water diversion tunnels or canals under construction or planned in China. Some projects in Xinjiang were not marked for national security reasons. Credit: Liang Shumin, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
The Yinjiangbuhan tunnel will send water from the Three Gorges Dam to Beijing. Red lines represent water diversion tunnels or canals under construction or planned in China. Some projects in Xinjiang were not marked for national security reasons. Credit: Liang Shumin, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Päijänne, the world’s longest water tunnel in Finland, stretches 120km in bedrock up to 130 metres deep. The Yinjiangbuhan tunnel is about twice as long and parts will go as deep as 1,000 metres underground.

It will take a decade to build and cost 60 billion yuan (US$8.9 billion), according to a report on July 8 by Guangming Daily, a state-owned newspaper based in Beijing.

“The Yinjiangbuhan tunnel will establish a physical connection between the Three Gorges Dam and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, China’s two critical infrastructures,” said Niu Xinqiang, president of the Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research during the groundbreaking ceremony on July 7, according to the report.

02:17

China’s Three Gorges Dam faces severe flooding as Yangtze overflows

China’s Three Gorges Dam faces severe flooding as Yangtze overflows

Zhang Xiangwei, director of the planning department with the Ministry of Water Resources, said the Yinjiangbuhan project was “a curtain raiser” for other projects.

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