The planned east-line project diverts water from the main stream of the Yangtze River near Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, and basically lifts water northward step by step along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to supply water to the eastern part of the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and the Jiaodong region.

The water supply area includes 25 prefecture-level and above cities in the Huaihe, Haihe and Yellow River basins, including Tianjin, Jinan, Qingdao, Xuzhou and other megacities as well as Cangzhou, Hengshui, Liaocheng, Dezhou, Binzhou, Yantai, Weihai, Zibo,

Weifang, Dongying, Zaozhuang, Jining, Heze, Tai'an, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Suqian, Lianyungang, Bengbu, Huaibei, Suzhou and other large and medium-sized cities.

According to statistics in 1998, the area has a population of 118 million, an urbanization rate of 23.6%, arable land of 8.8 million hm2, a total industrial and agricultural output value of 1.75 trillion yuan, and a grain output of 155.76 million tons.