Officials in Xiamen, Southeast China’s Fujian Province, said the city is ready to embark on the construction of a pipeline that would bring fresh water to Jinmen county, which is administered by Taiwan.

Jinmen is known to be extremely short of fresh water resources, with a per capita annual supply of just 167.9 cubic meters.

Xiamen officials made the offer to a water resources delegation from Jinmen county last week, after a similar proposal was submitted by political advisors representing the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang in March.

“Fresh water cannot be effectively stored on Jinmen, due to its rugged topography, short rivers and a high rate of evaporation, which offsets its huge annual precipitation,” said Bu Shuhe, a committee member and also a professor with the Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design General Institute of the Ministry of Water Resources.

The plan offered by Xiamen officials calls for directing water from the Jiulong River and the city’s Tingxi reservoir through a 30-kilometer long pipeline, of which 8 kilometers would be  undersea.

“Xiamen is badly in need of fresh water, and now gets water from neighboring Zhangzhou. How can it possibly secure outsourced water while it lacks water itself?” Bu told the Global Times.

An official from the city’s water resources bureau, surnamed Xu, confirmed the project to the Global Times, saying it is still far from being realized and might take years.

Hsu Hung-chih, director of Jinmen county’s Public Work Bureau, was not ready to talk about the potential of the project. “It’s not something we can decide,” he said.

“This project has more political significance than economic meaning,” said Bu, suggesting it remains hampered by a number of sensitive issues that will need to be resolved.

Hsu said his county’s delegation’s recent visit to Xiamen was designed to study the mainland city’s reservoir and water treatment plant.

By Li Xiang