China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project has transferred over 50 billion cubic meters of water from major rivers in the south to the drought-prone north as of late Friday night, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Some 140 million people have been benefited and economic development pattern of more than 40 large and medium-sized cities were optimized thanks to the project, the company in charge of the project revealed last December. 

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project has three routes. 

The middle route, the most prominent of the three due to its role in feeding water to the nation's capital Beijing, begins at the Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China's Hubei Province and runs through Henan and Hebei province before reaching Beijing and Tianjin. It began supplying water in December 2014.

The eastern route began operations in November 2013, transferring water from eastern Jiangsu Province to areas including Tianjin and Shandong.

The western route is in the planning stage and has yet to be built.

(With input from Xinhua)