BEIJING - China's south-to-north water diversion project has benefited more than 11 million people in Beijing, authorities said Monday.

The middle route of the project has pumped 2.6 billion cubic meters of water into Beijing, according to the project office.

More than 1.8 billion cubic meters went to Beijing's water plants, while 630 million cubic meters went into reservoirs or underground. The rest went into rivers and lakes in the city center.

The water diversion project carries 9.5 billion cubic meters of water each year through canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou reservoir in central China's Hubei Province to the provinces of Henan and Hebei as well as Tianjin and Beijing.

The project was conceived by Mao Zedong in 1952. The State Council approved the project in December 2002 after nearly half a century of debate.