A bird's eye view of the "Water Cube"

(BEIJING, October 23) -- Constructors in thirsty Beijing have taken numerous measures to endow the Olympic venues with water-saving and sewage treatment functions.

Steel gutters are spread over the roof of the grid-woven National Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest," to collect rainwater into the dippers inside the gutters. The water will be recycled and used to irrigate the land around the venue or flushing its toilets.

A similar mechanism, installed on the roof of the National Aquatics Center can collect as much as 10,500 cubic meters a year.

The "water Cube," the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, the Olympic Village, the Olympic Forest Park, and the Olympic Green hockey, archery and tennis venues all have high-standard sewage treatment systems which produce recycled water.

The Olympic Green Tennis Center

All in all, the Olympic venues have embarked on 121 water-saving and comprehensive use projects, with 55 of them spread over the Olympic Green area. The projects are able to collect an average of one million tons of water a year. In addition, over one million sq m of the venue ground surface are permeable to refill the water underground.