BEIJING - A water plant in Beijing announced that it is ready for water diverted from the country's south in a move to combat water scarcity in the capital.

The Guogongzhuang Water Plant has passed a test run and is able to purify water that will be transferred to Beijing via the south-to-north water diversion project soon, said Zhang Zhouqiang, head of the plant's engineering department.

The water plant, located in south Beijing, is the first major water plant built by the city in the downtown area for the project since 2000.

It is expected to provide 500,000 cubic meters of water daily to meet the demand of nearly five million residents in the national capital, Zhang said.

Beijing has arranged five water plants to serve the water diversion project. Its water supply capacity has also increased to 3.72 million cubic meters a day.

The middle route of China's south-to-north water diversion project will see a massive 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per year pumped through canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou reservoir in central Hubei Province to the northern provinces of Henan and Hebei and to Beijing.

The water transfer project was conceived by former Chairman Mao Zedong in 1952. The State Council approved the ambitious project in December 2002 after debate lasting nearly half a century.