The hilly region of northern Hubei is one of the main grain producing areas in China. However, it is characterized with lower rainfall and more polluted water quality. To alleviate water shortage and pollution problems in northern Hubei, Hubei province invested 18 billion to implement the North Hubei Water Resources Transfer Project in 2015. However, there is a lack of understanding of current pollution status of the relevant reservoirs in the receiving area and a lack of knowledge of their carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution history. In this study, a typical receiving reservoir in northern Hubei, Xionghe Reservoir, was selected to establish the chronological sequence of sediment since the construction of Xionghe Reservoir using the sediment 210Pb and 137Cs dating methods, and to reconstruct the effects of human activities and economic development on Xionghe Reservoir since its construction by combining sediment physicochemical analysis and data on population size, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and grain output in the basin. The results showed that the deposition history of the 34 cm sediment cores XHS(named XHS) of Xionghe Reservoir was about 66 years, spanning 1953-2019, with an average deposition rate of 0.66 cm/a. The total organic carbon content of sediment ranged from 0.57% to 1.56%, total nitrogen content from 0.32 to 1.84 g/kg, and total phosphorus content from 0.97 to 1.91 g/kg. The vertical distribution characteristic of total organic carbon of sediment showed significant positive correlation with the changes of population size, GDP and grain output in Xionghe Reservoir, and the total nitrogen showed significant positive correlation with the changes of grain output in Xionghe Reservoir. TP was positively correlated with Fe/Al-P, Ca-P, IP and OP in the sediment column XHS. Human activities resulted in an increasing trend of TP content and different forms of phosphorus before 1999. Deposition rate showed significant positive correlation with changes in population size, GDP and grain output in Xionghe Reservoir. The vertical distribution characteristic of C/N of sediment indicate that organic carbon was mainly derived from phytoplankton during the periods 1981-1996 and 2012-2019, and from a mixture of phytoplankton and terrestrial plant inputs during the periods 1963-1970 and 2006-2009.