China will realize the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the population without access to safe drinking water six years ahead of time, a Chinese minister said on Friday at the World Water Forum being held in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul.

Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei added at the Asian-Pacific Day of the Forum that China will completely solve rural difficulty in accessing safe drinking water by the end of 2013.

Chen admitted that China faces severe water situation. China is a developing country with the world's largest population limited water resources.

Uneven temporal and spatial distribution of water resources and the consequent mismatch between such distribution, as well as the layout of productivity has become the predominant problem to impact sustainable social and economic development in China, he added.

But he stressed that China has always been taking concrete measures in water sector to ensure sustainable development, such as the efficient utilization, integrated management, optimized allocation, comprehensive saving and effective protection of water resources.

"China has been attaching great attention to solutions to water problems and regards resources conservation and environmental protection as the basic national policies," said Chen.

According to him, China has scored remarkable achievement in water management. Over the past 30 years, China has sustained a nearly 10 percent annual economic growth rate at a one percent annual growth rate of water use.

For 30 consecutive years, China has increased grain output by nearly 50 percent with zero increase in water used for irrigation of farmland, feeding 20.1 percent of the world population, he said.

"China will realize the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the population without access to safe drinking water 6 years ahead of time, and completely solve rural difficulty in accessing safe drinking water by the end of 2013," he vowed.

He said that the Chinese government will complete the task of reinforcing large, medium and key small defective reservoirs by the end of 2010, and thereby eliminate their threats to people's lives and properties.

Water-saving renovation of large irrigation areas will be completed by 2020 when effectively irrigated farmland in China will extend by 5.54 million hectares, with the total area of effectively irrigated farmland to reach 63.33 million hectares and agricultural irrigation water use efficiency to improve by 20 percent.

Chen said by 2020, the Chinese people will be safely protected from floods, have access to safe and clean drinking water in both urban and rural areas and enjoy remarkably improved water environment, water ecology and enhanced informatization and modernization of the water sector.

A Chinese delegation of officials and experts headed by Chen attended the 5th World Water Forum, the world's largest water event, to share experiences about conquering water problems and promoting sustainable development.

The week-long Forum, which kicked off in Istanbul on Monday, attracted some 25,000 people all of world.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2009)