"南水北调"预计27日进北京

Authorities in Beijing have announced the first water from the country's massive South-North Water Diversion Project is going to hit the capital on Saturday.

Liang Li is a spokesperson for the Beijing Waterworks Group.

"We have been monitoring the quality of the water in Danjiangkou Reservoir for the past 12 years. Based on our analysis, we've worked out over 30 different plans to treat the water pumped from the reservoir. Our water plants are capable of treating the water. Since the project began two weeks ago, we haven't detected any problem water in the pipelines."

15 of Beijing's 16 districts and counties will receive water from the Yangtze River region this weekend.

There have been reports of a delay in getting the water to Beijing, as some of the pipelines had reportedly frozen.

The first stage of the middle route will supply almost 9.5 billion cubic meters of water, or one sixth the volume of Yellow River, every year to the country's north, including Beijing and Tianjin.

Beijing suffers from perpetual water shortages. The capital has per capita water resources of less than 100 cubic meters, far below the international standard of 500.