Chinese Vice Premier Hui
Liangyu said Saturday China will speed up construction of water
supply projects, while giving priority to water conservancy for
sustainable use of water resources in the coming year.
Addressing the annual national work conference on water
resources, the vice premier said China would also strengthen its
capacity building of disaster reduction, do more to prevent water
and soil erosion and step up ecological construction.
He called on localities to attach great importance to water
conservancy projects for the country's basic farmland as part of
the efforts to improve their comprehensive agricultural production
capacity.
Hui called for efforts to bring the initiatives of farmers in
contributing to water conservancy projects for farmland while
governments at various should increase their investment in those
projects.
The country's ongoing rural tax overhual, which was designed to
alleviate farmers' financial burden, has made it difficult for
local governments to raise money needed for those projects from
farmers.
The deputy premier said China has made great progress in the
past five years in construction of the country's water conservancy
projects with a great number of major projects that have great
bearing on national economy and people's life put into
operation.
China has deepened its reform of water prices and water
resources management mechanism during the past five years, he
said.
Water shortage, however, remains a critical issue in China with
weak flood-control capacity across the country, he said.
Unsafe drinking water still remains an outstanding problem in
rural areas, and great efforts should be made to tackle the issues
of water pollution and water and soil erosion, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2005)