300 million Chinese people in rural areas are drinking unsafe water, said Wang Shucheng, minister of water resources in Beijing on February 1.

The Ministry of Water Resources will put safeguarding the safety of drinking water on top of the agenda for quite long a period, said Wang at an awarding meeting for the good news reports on water conservancy in 2004.

40 percent of the water environment systems of China's rivers has been polluted to different extents. And China is also a country suffering serious water pollution. According to expert, water shortage has grown to be one of the major problems challenging China's building a well-off society in an all-round way in the coming twenty years.

Wang said, China is on one hand short of water and is burdened by severe water pollution on the other. He said, now there are 300 million people in rural areas drinking unsafe water. The situation of urban water consumption also allows of no optimism.

It is an important part of the all-round building of a well-off society that the safety of drinking water is guaranteed. No matter in urban or rural areas, all the water resources departments should put top priority on safeguarding drinking water safety and maintaining people's health.

For want of six billion cubic meters, presently water is scarce in two thirds of the cities in China and the shortage is relatively serious in 110 cities.

By People's Daily Online