BEIJING -- Beijing has completed its annual water diversion quota early this year, receiving 1.01 billion cubic meters from the south-to-north water diversion project as of Thursday.

The water diversion year is calculated from November 1 to the next year's October 31. Beijing is estimated to divert 1.032 billion cubic meters by the end of this month, exceeding the quota by 20 million cubic meters, according to the municipal office for the project.

The project has pumped 2.8 billion cubic meters of water into Beijing since December, 2014, benefiting more than 11 million people.

More than 1.8 billion cubic meters went to Beijing's water plants, the rest went into reservoirs, underground, rivers and lakes.

The project carries about 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 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.