Information from the government shows that Beijing is experiencing a most serious dry weather in 50 years. Some people worry that dry weather might affect the city's water consumption, as well as the water supply in the 2008 Olympic Games, of which Beijing is the host city. Bi Xiaogang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Water Affairs, said on Tuesday that such concern was unnecessary.

He said that the government regarded it a high priority to guarantee the safety of water consumption for Beijing residents and the water supply during the Olympic Games. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Water Affairs has outlined a series of detailed plans to ensure that Beijing will have enough water for consumption over the next five years, said Bi.

As the first measure, Beijing is working to better utilize its water resources. By making use of surface water, underground water, and recycled water resources, it is expected that all these water resources will be used in an effective way. As the second measure, all people are urged to conserve water resources whenever and wherever possible. In this regard, remarkable achievements have been made in agricultural production, where some 100 million cubic meters of water are saved every year.

In addition to these measures, Bi said the Beijing municipal government has built several projects for water use in case of emergency. Construction of the facilities to divert water from Beijng to Shijiazhuan as part of the south-to-north water diversion project, is well underway. It is expected to start to transport water by the first quarter of next year. By then, whenever there is any emergency case, Beijing can divert water resources from the four big reservoirs in Hebei, namely the Xidayang, Wangkuai, Gangnan and Huangbizhuang reservoirs. Each of these reservoirs contains several billion cubic meters of water resources.