CHENGDU -- China on Friday launched the construction of a major water diversion project designed to channel water into the 2,000-year-old Dujiangyan irrigation system, aiming to alleviate water shortages in the megacity of Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Sichuan province.

Transferring water from the Dadu River, the project will utilize a natural elevation drop to convey water through over 260 km of tunnels and pipelines to the Chengdu Plain -- creating dual water sources in combination with the existing Minjiang River.

The whole project is scheduled to be completed in eight years.

For more than two millennia, Dujiangyan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has diverted water from the Minjiang, a tributary of the Yangtze River, creating the fertile land on the Chengdu Plain. However, rapid socio-economic development in western China has exacerbated water scarcity in this region.

Sichuan's water resources, notably, are unevenly distributed. The basin area -- hosting 80 percent of the province's population, cultivated land and economic output -- possesses only 20 percent of its water resources. This imbalance is projected to worsen, with the Chengdu Plain economic zone's population expected to exceed 46 million by 2030, leading to a critical water supply gap by 2035.

As planned, the project is expected to transfer 1.39 billion cubic meters of water annually to Dujiangyan by 2040 and 1.52 billion cubic meters by 2050.

The supply network will cover 43 county-level areas across eight cities, benefiting 34.13 million people and a vast area of farmland.

Li Zhiyuan, from the Sichuan Water Development Investigation, Design and Research Co., Ltd., said that the project, as a key artery in the national water network, will integrate the functions of urban and rural water supply, irrigation, ecological water replenishment and emergency water sourcing.

Conceived as early as the 1950s, the project underwent decades of surveys and feasibility studies before receiving state approval and finally breaking ground -- marking a significant step in securing water resources for China's ongoing western development.