BEIJING (Xinhua): When the water started to gush north through the middle route of China's mega water diversion project in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed it as an important strategic infrastructure to optimise water resources, boost sustainable economic and social development, and improve people's livelihoods.

Five years on, the project, designed to take water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, to feed the arid north including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei Province and Henan province, has proved to be a reliable "lifeline" for water supplies in the recipient regions.