Beijing may divert seawater from nearby provinces as an immediate solution against the scarcity of water in the populated city.

The government is "seriously studying" the different routes of seawater diversion and desalting methods, the water authority said yesterday.

Some tests have already proven successful, it said.

"We hope seawater will soon become a useful alternative source of water for Beijing. In fact, we are mulling all options to bring in diverse resources to keep Beijing's water deposit at a safe level," said Cheng Jing, director of the city's water authority bureau, who was invited to a special briefing on water resources yesterday morning with local legislators.

Five legislators from Haidian district yesterday invited vice mayor Xia Zhanyi and senior water authority officials to a 90-miniute closed-door discussion on water policies.

The city of Beijing is 400 million cu m short of its water supply target each year, and the underground water level in the capital has been declining for nine consecutive years.

The 1,200 km South-to-North water diversion project, planned to feed more than one billion cu m of water to Beijing this year, was delayed to 2014 due to relocation issues in southern provinces.

But Beijing can wait no longer, officials said.

"The delay of the massive diversion project has forced authorities to come up with a quick and feasible solution, such as utilizing seawater," Nie told reporters after the meeting.

Studies on the diversion routes, desalination methods and cost evaluation have been ongoing, said Nie Yuzao, another senior official with the water authority yesterday.

Earlier this month, the engineering company affiliated to the Shougang Group, the region's largest steel maker, succeeded in testing technology that could turn a massive amount of seawater from Caofeidian in Hebei province into industrial water to be used for steel production.

A group of local legislators also visited the seawater desalination project in neighboring Tianjin municipality last month. Officials said the sea areas in both Hebei and Tianjin are possible sources to feed Beijing.

Beijing and Hebei authorities have already been discussing the possibility of having four Hebei-based reservoirs supply water to the capital later this year.

After a public hearing last month, the municipal government decided to raise the tap water price from 3.7 yuan per cu m to 4 yuan as its latest move to save the resource. But voters who rejected the rise urged authorities to charge heavy users more, instead of sharing the financial burden with all.