URUMQI, January 14 (ChinaMil) -- All the officers and men under the Xinjiang Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who are garrisoned at frontier sentry posts 5,000 meters above sea level can drink barreled pure water and say good-bye to the water from melted ice and snow from January 13, 2014, according to Zheng Xiaohong, director of the political department of the Hetian Military Sub-Command under the Xinjiang MAC of the PLA.

All the border sentry posts 5,000m above sea level are under the jurisdiction of the Hetian Military Sub-Command of the Xinjiang MAC. As these places are covered with snow and ice all year round, the supply of clean drinking water has long been a major problem.

In the past, the servicemen were used to fetch water from rivers in summer and drink melted ice and snow water in winter.

To tackle the issue of drinking water, the Xinjiang MAC tried to dig wells for many times successively, but failed to find water because of permafrost, high altitude and low water level.

Finally, the Xinjiang MAC decided to allocate water purification equipment and regularly send pure water to these frontier sentry posts to solve drinking water problem.

In November of 2013, the Xinjiang MAC allocated water purification equipment that can purify 500 kilograms of water per hour for border defense companies located in places 5,000m above sea level such as Shenxianwan.

However, the water treated by the purifiers contained mineral contents, to various extents, which were higher than the national standard.

Therefore, the Xinjiang MAC decided at the end of 2013 to supply barreled pure water to these sentry posts on monthly basis with a special fund.