I'm talking about Beijing, not the entire North region.
And Beijing is lacking only 1.5 billion cubic meters of water. 6 of similar water recycling plants in Singapore can produce that much clean water.
Hey, Buddy, it's me. I am not against you nor anyone. I just want to exchange views with you guys and be rational.
I recently read quite a bit about South–North Water Transfer Project, found this project can divert 44.8 billion cubic meters annually. Which means we need
150 water recycling plant. It's way to expensive.
The South–North Water Transfer Project is
one time investment, especially the middle route. The middle route is built on and across the North China Plain. The canal was constructed so that gravity is the force pushing the flow of the water all the way from the Danjiangkou Reservoir to Beijing, without the need for pumping stations. So no more expense for the next hundreds years(a little running fee of course). The water in middle route is clean, so water treatment expense is lower as well.
More importantly, the canal can divert much more water when there is flood in the south, and divert less when the south is dry. The water can be reserved in several lakes in the east route and some artificial lake near Beijing.
Last but not least, water plant can only serve the city near by, but water distribution is so uneven among different cities and years, seasons. Canal can redistribute water as needed. When there is too much rain, depreciation expense have to be covered by water bill even water plants are idle.
In Spring and Summer, Yangtze River will flood every year. It's the best time to divert as much water as possible. It can help to avoid some flood and benefit northern China a lot.
Chinese did quite a lot of research since 1950s in Chairman Mao's ear. In 2008 global financial crisis, China started huge infrastructure investment including high speed railway and speed up South–North Water Transfer Project(started since 2002). That's how China can still maintain economy growth. Now China enjoy 30000 km high speed railway, and avoid water crisis in dry season, unlike India.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South–North_Water_Transfer_Project
I believe you can read Chinese. I attached a research paper for your reference.