China plans to divert 2.5 billion cubic meters of water from its longest river Yangtze to Taihu Lake Basin this year in order to improve water quality for one of the country's richest areas.

Suo Lisheng, vice minister of water resources, said about 1 billion to 1.5 billion cubic meters of water will be pumped into the lake, the country's third biggest freshwater lake 1,960 sq km in size and 60 km south of the Yangtze River.

The official said the rest of the water to be diverted will be used to increase water volumes in selected rivers and smaller lakes, whose water flow into Taihu.

Taihu serves as the source of tap water plants for Suzhou City, an industrializing city and tourist attraction bordering Shanghai, and Wuxi City near the lake.

In another move to clean up the lake, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou cities have removed 170 million cubic meters of silt at a cost of 2 billion yuan (244 million US dollars) during the past few years, while Shanghai also desilted 21 rivers that are interconnected with the lake.

The basin, covering Shanghai, the economically prosperous part of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, accounts for 0.4 percent of thecountry's total landmass, 3 percent of the country's total population and 13 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2003.

Source: Xinhua