CHINA has dug through a mountain range to supply water from a tributary of the country’s longest river Yangtze to quench the drought in the northern areas.

Tunnels beneath the Qinling Mountains on Sunday started sending water from the Hanjiang River, the largest tributary of the Yangtze, to the Weihe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, said the water resources department of Shaanxi Province.

Officials hailed the project for allowing water from tributaries of the country’s two largest rivers to meet in Shaanxi, one of the most drought-ridden provinces in Northwest China.

Involving total investments of 51.6 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion), the project started construction in 2011 to bring water from Hanjiang in water-rich southern Shaanxi northward to Weihe, which traverses the more thirsty central parts of the province. (Xinhua)