The statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are repeated at the end of this article
As everyone knows, due to climate and environmental factors, water resources in the northern part of the mainland are more scarce than in the south, so the mainland has also specially built a south-to-north water diversion project to ensure water supply in several northern regions.
In recent years, some netizens have proposed that since the south-to-north water diversion can be carried out, can it cooperate with Russia and Mongolia to invest 100 billion yuan to build a China-Mongolia-Russia Grand Canal and divert the water of Lake Baikal from the north to the south?
01 Feasibility of the plan
First of all, although Lake Baikal is located in the Far East of Russia, the local climate is also very cold, but it is the largest freshwater lake in Eurasia, and it is also the deepest lake in the world.
According to statistics, Lake Baikal is about 636 kilometers long and 48 kilometers wide, with an average depth of 730 meters and a maximum depth of 1,630 meters.
At the same time, there is an extremely large amount of freshwater resources, the total amount of which can reach 23 trillion cubic meters, and the annual runoff of the Yangtze River on the mainland is 960 billion cubic meters, and it will take more than 23 years to fill Lake Baikal with water from the Yangtze River.
Moreover, the location of Lake Baikal is about 1,000 kilometers from the border of the mainland, which is about the same as the middle line of the mainland's south-to-north water diversion, but due to the higher altitude of Mongolia, some difficulties may arise, but they can still be overcome.
What's more, if the "north-south water diversion" is to be carried out, Mongolia is likely to be quite supportive, because the local water resources are more scarce, especially in recent years, Mongolia's desertification can be said to be extremely serious.
As a landlocked country, Mongolia's water sources are basically distributed in the northern region, and the central and southern parts are basically the vast Gobi, which is also a huge problem for the normal construction of the local area.
At the same time, the lack of water has also caused a great obstacle to their development, because many projects need to use water, and the central part of Mongolia has an unusually large number of iron ore resources, but because of the lack of water resources, they can only watch, but cannot dig.
Therefore, the Mongolian side must have agreed to the exploitation of this canal, and the construction of such a large-scale canal can also increase the trade between the three countries, and the direct transportation of goods through the canal will also generate considerable benefits.
To sum up, the idea of this China-Mongolia-Russia Grand Canal is theoretically feasible, but the problem is that neither the mainland nor Russia has a great will.
02 Chinese and Russian water sources
First of all, Russia, although the geographical area ranks first in the world, across the Eurasian continent, but the Siberian Plain in the middle of the environment is too poor to be inhabited, most of the people are active in Eastern Europe, only a small part of the region near the northeast of the continent.
The Baikal region is naturally home to a small number of Russians, who also get their water here, so it is not natural that there is no reason to open factories and other facilities in the vicinity, for fear of pollution or affecting the lives of the locals.
Moreover, even if the "north-south water diversion" is carried out, it will not be able to make Russia nod in terms of profits, after all, they take water here to transport it to China, and the price of this water is not easy to win.
As we mentioned above, the construction of a canal will increase the trade exchanges between China, Russia and Mongolia. But the number of Russian settlers in the region, and the current level of development on the Mongolian side, make it difficult to really generate huge benefits at the moment.
Therefore, for the Russian side, there is no reason for them to invest in this plan on a large scale, because almost all of them are losing money and suffering, and for the mainland, I am afraid they are not so willing.
First of all, although the water resources in the northern part of the mainland are relatively scarce, it does not mean that the water resources of the mainland are scarce as a whole, so the mainland has implemented many plans for the south-to-north water diversion project, which has effectively improved the water environment in the northern region.
Therefore, since the mainland can guarantee its own water use in various ways, there is no need to transfer water from Russia across Mongolia; first, the investment in the project is not proportional to the return; second, this way of relying on other countries for its own water use is not in line with the mainland's strategy.
What's more, as mentioned above, the idea of the "China-Russia-Mongolia Grand Canal" is indeed very good, but the amount of work is too large, and it needs to be carried out in three different countries.
At the same time, the altitude of Outer Mongolia is higher than that of Lake Baikal, and it is more difficult to build a canal, and the loss is also quite large.
And if you want to build, it is natural to connect most of the rivers through construction, but the central and southern parts of Mongolia are the Gobi, and there are no rivers to connect, so they can only be built by engineering, which is naturally very expensive.
Russia will not agree to sell Baikal water at a particularly high price, and if the price is high, the mainland will not agree, and Mongolia does not have the technology and foreign exchange reserves to pay a high price, so it will be difficult to implement.
It can only be said that although the idea of this project is very good, the difficulty of implementation is quite large, and the main reason is the interests of all parties, but as an idea of netizens, it is still very brainy.
03Environmental improvement
From the mainland's "South-to-North Water Diversion" project, we can feel that the mainland is still working hard to improve the water use in the north, but in fact this is only a part of the mainland's improved water use.
First of all, the northern part of the continent did not have such a shortage of water resources in the early days, but this situation has become more and more serious since modern times, and this situation has many to do with changes in the environment and a decrease in precipitation.
Moreover, the north we are talking about is far more than the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places are also very difficult to use water, and the desertification in the west is also very serious, so this situation naturally seriously affects the water problem in the north.
This situation is undoubtedly a vicious circle, because the more serious the desertification and desertification, the worse the local environment will be, and the precipitation will slowly decrease, not to mention the problem of water use.
Therefore, in order to break this situation, the key is to improve the local environment, protect and expand the local wetland area, so that these areas can slowly return to the abundant water in the past.
Therefore, we can see that in recent years, the mainland has carried out various sand fixation projects, the construction of windbreaks, etc., including the south-to-north water diversion project, which is also an important part of improving the local environment.
In these years of construction, we can also fully feel the changes in the environment, such as the gradual restoration of the ecological environment, the effective improvement of water resources in the north, the expansion of wetlands, and so on, all of which are achievements made by the mainland.
The mainland has done all this with its own strength, so there is no need to rely on such a strategy as "transferring water from the north to the south", after all, we have both measures to ensure water use at present and goals to improve the environment in the future.
Of course, all countries cannot be regarded as China, for example, the current desertification situation in Mongolia is difficult for them to manage on their own, and now there is a vicious circle, perhaps this has become their tragedy.
Sources of information:
[1] National Key Laboratory of Water Resources Engineering and Dispatch, Wuhan University 2023.09.05: Mongolia is engaged in the transfer of water from the north to the south with 15 billion US dollars
[2] Sina Science & Technology 2005.07.15: Background information: Geography of Lake Baikal
[3] China News Network 2023.11.15: The eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has been connected to water for 10 years: smoothing the north-south economic cycle and benefiting 101 counties and municipalities in 3 provinces