Almost 26 million rural people in China still lack clean drinking water despite massive investment to ease water shortage in its northern and western regions, officials said on 3 Nov 2003. "We have made breakthroughs in easing the rural residents' access to drinking water," Vice-Minister of Water Resources Zhai Haohui said at a national conference on drinking water for rural population, which opened Shijiazhuang city, capital of the north China's Hebei province. "We had solved the drinking water problem for 24.23 million people in the rural areas by the end of 2002 and 15.6 million more are expected to have access to clean drinking water by the end of this year. The rural water supply project will move to guaranteeing the safety of drinking water for rural residents after 2004 when we expect to solve the water shortage in the countryside," Zhai said.

Source: Xinhuanet, 3 Nov 2003

Tags: water resources management