Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS November 14, 1997

11/10/97, Xinhua

URUMQI (Xinhua) -- A 22-metre-wide river will be dug through Karamay, an oil city in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said Chen Hanyang, deputy director of the Xinjiang Petroleum Management Bureau.

"The river will help with water supply for the desert city, making it possible to cultivate 30,000 hectares of farmland," he added.

River digging has been going on since June, and the river flow will come from the Ertix River through a 450-kilometre irrigation canal, which is also being built. About 400 million cubic metres of water will be carried by the river a year, providing western China's biggest petroleum base with a sufficient water supply for daily use and irrigation.

"The construction of the 3.8 billion yuan ($470 million) water diversion project has been in full swing, and water will come through the Karamay river in 1999," Chen said. The city's name, Karamay, means "black oil" in the Uygur language.