Irtysh–Karamay Canal

The Irtysh–Karamay–Ürümqi Canal (Chinese: 引额济克(乌)工程; pinyin: Yǐn-É-jì-Kè (Wū) gōngchéng; literally: "Irtysh River Diversion to Karamay (Ürümqi) Project"), also known as the Project 635(Chinese: 635工程; pinyin: 635 gōngchéng; literally: "Project 635") Canal, is a system of water-transfer canals and reservoirs in the northern part of China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. It transfers water from the Irtysh River (which flows toward the Arctic Ocean) into several dry endorrheic basins of north-central Xinjiang, where it is used for irrigation and general use of the population and industries.

The canal is often referred in Chinese publications simply the "Project for Supplying Water From the Irtysh" (“引额供水”工程).

According to Chinese planners, the water carried by the canal will eventually irrigate 140,000 hectares of land. An important user of the canal's water is the petroleum industry around Karamay.

The ideas for redirecting some of the waters of the Irtysh for irrigation use in the (Soviet) Central Asia was actively discussed in the USSR in the mid-20th century. However, the bulk of the Soviet Northern river reversal project was never implemented; only a fairly minor Irtysh–Karaganda Canal was constructed in central Kazakhstan. The upper course of the Irtysh, is, however, in China, and it was the Chinese authorities who, in the 1990s, embarked on a large-scale project for the use of some of the waters of that river in the Chinese part of Central Asia, i.e. Xinjiang. The project was approved by all the relevant authorities by 2000, and construction work started soon thereafter. The water reached Karamay by 2008.

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