Guangdong's provincial water resources department will make the Pearl River Delta project the top priority in the coming two years in order to secure the water supply of Hong Kong, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The department has submitted the Pearl River Delta Water Resources Allocation Project to the Ministry of Water Resources for approval. The project is designed to pump water from the Xijiang River valley to the Dongjiang River valley, which is the main fresh water supply for Hong Kong. It will also serve as a supplemental water supply for Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou.

Zhou Dejiao, the top manager of Guangdong's water supply projects, pointed to the increasing disparity in recent years between supply and demand for Dongjiang River water.