The middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project has sent 2.2 billion cubic meters of water to north China, benefiting 38 million people in a dozen cities in its first year of operation.

Some 870 million cubic meters have flowed to Henan Province. Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province received 840 million cubic meters, 380 million cubic meters and 130 million cubic meters respectively, according to the project administration bureau.

Designed to take water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, through eastern, middle and western routes to feed dry areas in the north, the diversion project now provides 70 percent of Beijing's water supply.

It is the world's largest such scheme at an estimated cost of 500 billion yuan (77.4 billion U.S. dollars). It was officially approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, in 2002, five decades after Mao Zedong came up with the idea.

The middle route, which provides the primary flow to the capital, began supplying water on Dec. 12, 2014 as part of the project's first phase. It begins at Danjiangkou Reservoir in central Hubei Province and runs across Henan and Hebei provinces before reaching Beijing and Tianjin. (Xinhua News)