At 9:00AM on August 7th, the Jingjiang River floodgate of the Yangtze-hanjiang Water Diversion Project was brought up by 0.1 meter to test to release the water, marking the emergent water dispatch of the Yangtze-hanjiang Water Diversion Project come into operation. It is estimated that the Yangtze-hanjiang Water Diversion Project is going to work on the morning of August 8th, about 51 days earlier than the schedule.

Enable the Yangtze-hanjiang Water Diversion Project ahead of time is a great decision made by Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Hubei Provincial Government to cope with the severe drought in the middle and downstream of Han River. After the water of Yangtze River transferred into Han River, it will benefit 7 cities and districts in the middle and downstream of Han River and relief drought resisting water of more than 6,000,000 mu of farmland. When it is going to work on August 8th, the water flow will reach at 100-150 m3/s.

The Yangtze-hanjiang Water Diversion Project is one of the compensation projects of South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and will transfer the average of 3.7billion m3 water annually. Xu mingxiang, the chief engineer of the Yangtze Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research, said that after four years’ construction, the main part of the project has been basically completed, the underwater concealed work and the unit work have been completed acceptance, which is the prerequisite of the project’s going to work and coping with the drought ahead of time when in emergency situation.

After the emergency plan of water transferring and drought fought delivered to the National South-to-North Water Diversion Office, the office support Hubei to combat drought, and requested that Hubei should carry out emergent water dispatch on the basis of safety. On August 6th, the Jingjiang River floodgate was opened and the Yangtze-hanjiang Water Diversion Project started to adjust the height of water and made the preparations for the project to go to work on August 8th.