As the largest water diversion project in the world, with the longest distance, the largest population and the widest scope of benefits, the project has transferred 49.4 billion cubic meters of water to the north over the past seven years, equivalent to the water volume of the Yellow River in a year, and has fundamentally alleviated the water shortage situation in the water-affected areas.

Over the past seven years, the first phase of the East-Central route of the South-To-North Water Diversion project has delivered water to the north, benefiting more than 140 million people in more than 40 large and medium-sized cities and more than 280 counties and cities along the route in Henan, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong. Previously, the haihe River basin, where Beijing and Tianjin are located, had only 292 cubic meters of water per capita, less than one-seventh of the national average and well below the internationally recognized "extreme water shortage standard" of 500 cubic meters per capita. In the past seven years, the "Southern Water" has grown from a supplementary source to a major source of water for many large and medium-sized cities.