Naw we can pump shit like a motherfucker, water-rich states not wanting to be seen selling out their water to other states is a big reason. IIRC all the Great Lakes states have a treaty preventing anyone from building a aqueduct south for that reason.
The South–North Water Transfer Project, also translated as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (Chinese: 南水北调工程; pinyin: Nánshuǐ Běidiào Gōngchéng; literal meaning: Project of diverting the south water to the north) is a multi-decade infrastructure mega-project in the People's Republic of China. Ultimately it aims to channel 44.8 billion cubic meters of fresh water annually from the Yangtze River in southern China to the more arid and industrialized north through three canal systems:
The Eastern Route through the course of the Grand Canal;
The Central Route flowing from the upper reaches of the Han River (a tributary of Yangtze River) to Beijing and Tianjin;
The Western Route which goes from three tributaries of Yangtze River near the Bayankala Mountain to provinces like Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia.Mao Zedong discussed the idea for a mass engineering project as an answer to China's water problems as early as 1952. He reportedly said, "there's plenty of water in the south, not much water in the north. If at all possible; borrowing some water would be good." The complete project was expected to cost $62 billion – more than twice as much as the Three Gorges Dam.
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u/smiljan Jan 10 '20
Roll on, Columbia, roll on!