China to hike investment in water conservation projects
October 12th, 2011 - 2:16 pm ICT by IANSBeijing, Oct 12 (IANS) China will continue to increase its investment in water conservation infrastructure, an official said Wednesday.
This year China had invested nearly 260 billion yuan ($40.63 billion) in water conservation infrastructure by the end of September, with the central government’s investment reaching 113.9 billion yuan, Jiao Yong, vice minister of water resources, said at a press conference.
The investment has been used to improve the availability of safe drinking water for 63.5 million rural residents, reinforce 6,595 reservoirs, harness 800 rivers and build early warning systems for flooding in 1,100 counties, Jiao said.
Despite flooding this year, the country reported no breaches of major rivers and tributaries and no bursts in mid- to large-sized reservoirs, Xinhua quoted Jiao as saying.
China aims to harness more than 5,000 rivers over the next five years and speed up the construction of early warning systems for flooding.
China plans to double its average annual spending on water conservation during the next decade from its 200-billion-yuan investment in 2010.
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Tags: 5 million, aims, beijing, breaches, central government, china plans, early warning systems, flooding china, infrastructure, next decade, next five years, reservoirs, rivers, safe drinking water, tributaries, vice minister, water conservation projects, water resources, xinhua, yuan