Watershed management

SINGAPORE, June 13 (Reuters) - As droughts loom, China is planning ambitious new water infrastructure projects in hope that moving more of the precious liquid across the country will mitigate the impact of climate change - but experts warn more river diversions may be costly. At the end of May, officials released plans to build a national "water network" of new canals, reservoirs and storage facilities they say will boost irrigation, and cut the risk of floods and droughts. Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying said the plan would "unblock the major arteries" of the river system by 2035, boosting the state's ability to even out water supply distribution. But experts say this approach is not only expensive and environmentally disruptive, but could leave regions in the south more vulnerable to supply disruptions and require additional infrastructure to address. "What they have been doing so far is using engineering solutions to try to physically supply water and fix their water problem," said Mark Wang, a geographer at Melbourne University who studies the impact of China's water infrastructure. "If China can reduce water use and increase efficiency, it doesn't need mega-diversion projects." China's Ministry of Water Resources did not respond to a request for comment. Although this year's drought is not expected to be as severe as last year's, when months of high temperatures parched large parts of the Yangtze basin, state forecasters warn that central and southwestern China...