X-8 Question: It is reported that 80 percent of diseases in developing countries are related to water and more than 50 kinds of diseases in China are also caused and spread through drinking water. More than 300 million people are drinking unsafe water. What measures will the Chinese Government take to maintain drinking water security in rural areas to eradicate health threats caused by unqualified drinking water?
A: Chinese Government attaches great importance to people's drinking water in rural areas. After new China was founded in 1949, Chinese Government established more than 3 million water supply projects of different kinds in rural areas, helping 273 million people out of the problem of water shortage. However, owing to the facts that water supplies in some rural areas are separated from centralized water supply system, the problem of drinking water security, such as unsafe water and insufficient drinkable water, is still serious. Statistics show that nearly 300 million people in rural areas are using unsafe water and the number of people died of unqualified water is higher than that of people died of flood. Thus, the best measure to reduce diseases and improve people's health is to supply clean water and qualified sanitation to all the people.
In order to resolve the problem, Chinese Government launched a rural drinking water program in 2000. Taking into consideration of the regional differences, the government has taken several measures. The existing water supply network can be expanded to cover nearby rural areas, and centralized water supply system can be built for populous regions which are far away from urban areas. For regions with separated villages and small scale water resources, village-level water supplying system can be established. For regions with high water supplying costs, especially in places with salty water or water with high content of fluorine or arsenic, special water processing projects will be built to supply different water for different use. In 2000-05, a total of 23.5 billion yuan, including Chinese Government's special fund of 12.3 billion yuan of state bonds, funds from local governments and funds raised independently from local people, was injected to resolve drinking water problems for more than 71 million farmers.
In order to accelerate the project, Chinese Government will resolve drinking water problem for 32 million people in rural areas in 2006-10. It is expected that in 2010, tap water will cover 60 percent of villages and town nationwide, greatly easing the problem of drinking water security in rural areas. In 2020, tap water will cover all the rural areas in China, and thus, the drinking water problem will be thoroughly resolved.
At the same time, in order to meet the demand of sustainable development, Chinese Government is gradually changing its strategies of water resource management. On the basis of people's needs, it is making an emergency plan for drinking water security in rural areas. Through taking measures such as improving rural environment and educating local people, China is accelerating its construction of a guarantee system for drinking water security to supply qualified drinking water for farmers.
(China.org.cn)