China has invested some 31.5 billion yuan, around 5 billion US dollars, since 2008 to improve the environment in 59,000 villages covering some 110 million local residents.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Finance issued a joint statement on Sunday in Nanjing confirming the investment.

The two ministries said that they had made collective efforts to improve road infrastructure, waste disposal, sewage treatment and drinkable water systems in rural areas across China.

Minister of Environmental Protection Chen Jining said that environmental protection is a weak point in rural areas.

"In the next stage, the financial support from the central authorities will focus on the villages and regions nearby important water sources and national water diversion projects such as the Danjiangkou Reservoir, the central and eastern routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and the Three Gorges Reservoir. Meanwhile, we will continue to push forward the management of the environmental issues in rural areas. Such problems will be solved once they are found."

Deputy Finance Minister Liu Kun said that the central authorities will continue to increase their investment in improving the environment in the 130,000 villages newly added to the campaign's must-do list over the next five years.

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