BEIJING -- The eastern and central routes of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project have transferred 76.5 billion cubic meters of water to the country's drought-prone northern regions.

The project has benefited more than 185 million people, ensuring the supply of water for 45 large and medium-sized cities along the two routes, according to data revealed at a forum on the national water system and the project's high-quality development on Saturday.

The country's South-to-North Water Diversion Project celebrates its 10th anniversary of operations this year. It will eventually have three routes: a central route, an eastern route and a western route.

The central route, which is the most prominent, begins at the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Central China's Hubei province and runs through Henan and Hebei before reaching Beijing and Tianjin. The eastern route transfers water from East China's Jiangsu province to areas such as Tianjin and Shandong.

Wang Annan, chairman of the China South-to-North Water Diversion Corporation Limited, told the forum that a central route follow-up project is advancing smoothly, and a follow-up project for the eastern route and preliminary work on the western route are also progressing.

China's investment in water conservancy projects neared 1.09 trillion yuan ($151.66 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, up 11.7 percent year on year.