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The plan has its genesis in the Mao era. “Water in the south is abundant, water in the north scarce. If possible, it would be fine to borrow a little,” the great helmsman of China reportedly said in the 1950s paving the way for the engineering feat, which is much more ambitious than the Three Gorges Dam. Three artificial channels would transport the Yangtze water from the south to the north. In the process the channels will cross some 205 rivers and streams in the industrial heartland of China before reaching Beijing. Critics say the human cost of the venture is staggering. One of the channels passing through Hubei province alone will force relocation of about 3, 50,000 villagers. Already some 150 thousand people had been resettled, many of them far from their homes and fields. For three days last November, thousands of residents of a resettlement area in Qianjiang city blocked roads to protest poorly built homes and lack of promised compensation. Police broke up the protests and made several arrests. But their sacrifice may go in vain in the end because when water reaches Beijing it will not be safe for drinking, according to experts.