Historical freshwater movement projects

Major historical freshwater movement projects, also known as interbasin water transfers, have been implemented worldwide to address regional disparities in water availability for agriculture, urban supply, and industry.wikipedia+2​

Notable Global Projects

• Early projects include irrigation diversions in ancient Egypt along the Upper Nile dating back to 2400 BCE, which though small-scale, represent some of the first human freshwater transfer efforts.pdfs.semanticscholar​

• The 1940s to 1980s marked a peak for large-scale transfers, especially in North America, the Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, and Egypt.pdfs.semanticscholar​

North American Projects

Some of the most significant projects are found in North America, including:

• All-American Canal System (USA, 1935–1939): Designed to provide irrigation to California’s Imperial Valley, this canal system remains the largest-capacity water supply and irrigation canal in the United States, diverting water from the Colorado River.asce​

• Central Valley Project (California, USA): Initiated in the 1930s, it comprises an extensive network of dams, reservoirs, and canals transferring water mainly from northern to southern California for both agriculture and urban use.wikipedia​

• California State Water Project: Another vast system supplying water from Northern California down to urban and agricultural regions in the south.wikipedia​

• Central Utah Project: Supplies the Wasatch Front and supports irrigation via diversions from other basins.wikipedia​

• Colorado–Big Thompson Project: Transfers water beneath the Continental Divide from the Colorado River basin to northeast Colorado.wikipedia​

• New York City Aqueducts: The New Croton (1890), Catskill (1916), and Delaware (1945) Aqueducts brought water to New York City from increasingly distant reservoirs and river basins.wikipedia​

Other International Examples

• South-to-North Water Transfer Project (China): This ongoing megaproject aims to move water from the Yangtze River basin in southern China to the arid north, including Beijing.sciencedirect+1​

• Great Man-Made River Project (Libya): Transfers fossil groundwater from desert aquifers to coastal cities.

Canadian and Unbuilt Schemes

• Canada is a major water diversion country by capacity, with numerous regional diversion projects, and it has also been the subject of extreme proposals such as the “Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal” (the NAWAPA concept), although these were never realized.wikipedia+1​

Key Purposes and Issues

• Major drivers for these projects include agriculture, urban water supply, and industrial growth, with large systems often controlled by complex networks of dams, canals, and reservoirs.asce+1​

• Historic and modern projects also face environmental, social, and political challenges: fish habitat disruption, saline incursion, indigenous rights, and cost overruns are recurrent topics.encyclopedia+2​

These examples highlight the scale and complexity of freshwater movement projects over time, reflecting both human ingenuity and the need to balance benefits with long-term impacts.wikipedia+3​

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbasin_transfer
2. https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/water-diversion-projects
3. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/543c/b943cd0e5986ebcfd7e4a0b0d9896e9ca31e.pdf
4. https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/all-american-canal-system
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_Project
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Water_Project
7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969717330711
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recycling_and_Northern_Development_Canal
9. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1489917/full
10. https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/WRM05/WRM05039FU.pdf
11. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1202300/full
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aqueducts
13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1474706507000666
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_(water_supply)
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klamath_Diversion
16. https://www.wrc.org.za/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT120-00.pdf
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal
18. https://waterportal.ca/diversion-channel/
19. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03091333211065004
20. https://www.britannica.com/technology/canal-waterway/16th-to-18th-century