Shanghai, the nation's economic hub, plans to launch a campaign to improve water systems in the countryside and protect farmers while improving their standard of living.

Governments at the municipal and district levels have earmarked 1.3 billion yuan (US$157 million) for the coming year to achieve a balance between safety, resource use and the environment by stressing sound ecological practices, technology and comprehensive benefits.

"The development of Shanghai into an international metropolis demands modernized suburbs," said Vice-Mayor Hu Yanzhao during a Wednesday conference.

"Flood prevention, increasing agricultural output and farmers' income are still major tasks we shall strive to tackle," he said. "And the coming winter and spring is the best time for hydraulic construction to lay a solid foundation to achieve our goals."

Installing modern irrigation facilities, dredging irrigation channels and improving the water quality are all on the agenda for next year to make sure farmers have a better harvest.

The comprehensive treatment of river water in the suburbs is to be emphasized to protect the health of local farmers.

The city has more than 20,000 rivers or streams and farmland could easily become a habitat for parasites that do harm to farmers' health.

"We have to stand alert against them," said Liu Xiaotao, director of the Hydraulic Drainage & Irrigation Division with the Shanghai Municipal Water Affairs Bureau.

The water systems on the city's three islands, Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha, will be cleaned and connected to contribute to the ecological construction of these islands.

Several factories will also be relocated out of the city's downtown to Changxing Island to make room for the coming World Expo in 2010.

The number of sewage treatment facilities is to be increased in the suburbs to curb pollutants from flowing into the rivers and water supply pipes will extend from downtown to the suburbs to provide farmers with better drinking water, Liu said.

(China Daily November 26, 2004)