Some 53.1 million people in northern China have benefited from the country’s massive water diversion project which has so far transferred 10 billion cubic meters of water from the south to the draught-prone north, authorities announced Tuesday.

The water pumped from the Yangtze River has gone to Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Henan and Hebei along the middle route of the water diversion project, according to the South-to-North Water Diversion Office under the State Council.

The middle route of the project carries water through canals and pipes from Danjiangkou reservoir in central China’s Hubei Province. It came into operation in late 2014.

The project has supplied 2.7 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing, serving 11 million people.

Currently about 70 percent of Beijing’s water supply comes from the project. The city’s per capita water resources have increased from 100 to 150 cubic meters. Previously the city’s water supply came mainly from underground water.

Tianjin got 2.2 billion cubic meters of water while Henan and Hebei provinces got 3.5 billion cubic meters of water and 1.1 billion cubic meters of water respectively.

Officials with the office said the project has played “an indispensable strategic role” in helping the north ease water shortage, improve water quality and ecology, build a resource-conserving society and prevent natural disasters.

Some 53.1 million people in northern China have benefited from the country’s massive water diversion project which has so far transferred 10 billion cubic meters of water from the south to the draught-prone north, authorities announced Tuesday.

The water pumped from the Yangtze River has gone to Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Henan and Hebei along the middle route of the water diversion project, according to the South-to-North Water Diversion Office under the State Council.

The middle route of the project carries water through canals and pipes from Danjiangkou reservoir in central China’s Hubei Province. It came into operation in late 2014.

The project has supplied 2.7 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing, serving 11 million people.

Currently about 70 percent of Beijing’s water supply comes from the project. The city’s per capita water resources have increased from 100 to 150 cubic meters. Previously the city’s water supply came mainly from underground water.

Tianjin got 2.2 billion cubic meters of water while Henan and Hebei provinces got 3.5 billion cubic meters of water and 1.1 billion cubic meters of water respectively.

Officials with the office said the project has played “an indispensable strategic role” in helping the north ease water shortage, improve water quality and ecology, build a resource-conserving society and prevent natural disasters.

A group of Chinese students have invented a system to increase the electricity generation of small and medium-sized hydropower stations during dry seasons.

The system is based on a variable speed, constant frequency motor for small and medium-sized hydropower plants designed by a doctoral team from Hunan University.

“Traditional hydroelectric power stations have a fixed water flow requirement, which means electricity outputs drop dramatically during the dry season,” said Lyu Mingsheng, one of the students.

The invention fixes the current situation where power output is directly proportional to river flow, allowing small and medium-sized hydropower plants to maintain output throughout all seasons, according to Lyu.

Improving generating capacity is expected to reduce the number of hydropower plants needed in the future, therefore lessening their effect on the environment.

“The new technology will transform the dam construction in China, making it more environment-friendly,” he said.

Lyu cited official figures published in 2013 that stated China had more than 45,000 hydropower stations in rural areas, with the total installed capacity exceeding 65 million kilowatt (kW).

If the new system was applied to all of these stations, the total installed capacity would be increased by 19.5 million kW, almost equivalent to the output of the Three Gorges Dam which is 22.4 millon kW, Lyu added.

The core technology has received 10 national patents and several companies have signed cooperation agreements with Lyu’s team.

Beijing plans to restore and add 11,000 hectares of wetlands between 2016 and 2020, local authorities said.

By 2020, 60 percent of the total wetlands in Beijing are expected to be under protection, the Beijing Municipal Gardening and Greening Bureau said in a statement.

Following years of protection, the Chinese capital has reached 51,400 hectares of wetland area, the agency said.

Of total, 23,800 hectares are natural wetlands, it said.

In 2016, Beijing added 2,280 hectares of wetlands after afforestation in the plain areas and ecosystem restoration in some river valleys.

Currently, Beijing has six wetland nature reserves and 10 wetland parks covering a total area of more than 20,000 hectares.

In recent years, Beijing authorities have been paying more attention to the environment, with enormous efforts being made on greening and pollution reduction.

In the Chinese classic “Dream of Red Mansions,” the main character Jia Baoyu was depicted as being born with a magical piece of jade in his mouth.

The story seemed to come true when a girl was born in east China’s Zhejiang Province with a transparent egg-shaped “jade” object.

According to the People’s Hospital of Tiantai County, the object, identified as a peritoneal loose body, was about the size of the girl’s palm and fell out of the mother’s abdomen during her C-Section operation.

“Everyone present was shocked,” said obstetrician Pan Yuxia. “We continued with the operation after making sure that all was well and a healthy baby girl was born weighing 2.8 kilograms.”

The pathology of peritoneal loose bodies is not entirely clear, but they are presumed to be formed from epiploic appendages, small pouches of fat situated in the colon, that transform into masses and can be found floating inside people’s abdomens.

There are only a dozen documented cases worldwide of peritoneal loose bodies with diameter over 5 cm and one as transparent as this is rarely seen, Pang said.

“Great literature comes from real life,” a user named Sdanler said on microblogging platform Weibo.

Another user, Fuyuliuhao1, said the baby’s name should have the character Yu, which means jade in Chinese.