China to bring clean, safe water to all rural residents by 2015

One hundred and sixty million people in China's rural areas will get clean and safe drinking water in the next five years and by 2015 all Chinese rural residents will be provided with safe potable water, Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng told Xinhua on Monday.

Wang said currently 312 million Chinese villagers are facing water shortages or unsafe water contaminated by fluorine, arsenic, high levels of salt or other organic or industrial pollutants.

Although the budget has not been firmly set, the minister said the country plans to invest about 40 billion yuan (5 billion U.S. dollars) over the next ten years on safe water supply projects.

Wang said China is likely to far exceed its UN Millennium Development Goal which was to reduce by half the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015.

Worldwide, one in every six people is without safe, potable water and in China there are more than 50 diseases caused and spread by unsafe water, said Zhai Haohui, Vice Minister of Water Resources.

China's 11th five-year plan for 2006-2010, approved last March, called for safe and portable water to be provided to 100 million rural residents. That target number was raised to 160 million after a State Council conference on rural drinking water safety held on August 30.

Wang said the increased pace in providing drinking water to China's thirsty rural areas is in line with the central government plan to build a new socialist countryside.

According to Wang, the central government will increase investment in rural water supply projects and encourage more private investment in rural infrastructure construction.

Wang said more capital from the central government will flow into the poorer western regions of China in the coming years, with the rich eastern region encouraged to open parts of its rural water supply to investors by offering them favorable investing policies.

Water supply facilities in urban centers will be extended to villages located in city suburbs. Villages far from urban areas will see the construction of water-supply facilities, said the minister.

In areas where local water is contaminated by fluorine, arsenic or high levels of salt, special water-treatment and water supply facilities will be built, said Wang.

Tang Min, chief economist with the China Mission of the the Asian Development Bank (ADB), told Xinhua that the Chinese government's decision to provide accessible potable water to rural people shows that China has aligned itself with the new concept of scientific development and a "people-centered" approach.

Tang, who studied China's rural problems, said great changes have taken place in China's development strategy in recent years. It has shifted from simple pursuit of economic growth to a harmonious development between economy and society.

Statistics with the Ministry of Water Resources said China's per capita water resources are only a quarter of world average level.

The ministry said China has built more than three million rural water supply projects since the country was established in 1949, benefiting 273 million rural residents.

China spent 22.3 billion yuan (2.79 billion dollars) from 2001 to 2005 to provide 67 million people with safe water supplies.

Wang said while China works to resolve its own water problems, the country is contributing more to the international effort to solve the world's water crises. In recent years, China has helped fund 83 water and sanitation projects in developing countries, and dispatched many technologists to African countries where they have worked on local water supply projects.

Veolia Water will be the focus of future international business "locked" in China

"The next 10 years, Veolia Water's global business to achieve double, which the Chinese market in its global business operations will account for about 10% of the share," the world's largest water services group Veolia Water Resources Group Chief Executive Anthony Frerot said in Beijing on the 10th.

A special trip to China to attend the opening of "the fifth World Water Congress" on the 10th in Beijing, Frerot in an interview with reporters, said that in recent years, China's water supply market has made remarkable progress, The Chinese government in promoting investment in diverse fields to the main water supply in the process of being taken a strong policy to attract more and more transnational Water Resources Group to enter the Chinese market.

Frerot said that since the beginning of this year, Veolia Water has been in the two new projects, one signed by early September just for the one million population in Liuzhou drinking water production, distribution and customer relationship management for a 30-year period for integrated water services, Another is the beginning of this year, with the Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical subsidiary signed a contract for as long as 25 years in the industry, the two sides will set up a joint venture company, Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical base for the operation of the industrial recovery, treatment and recycling facilities.

Frerot said that with the signing of these two new projects, Veolia Water Services in China has reached a total of 19 projects with more than 7,000 employees were. He also disclosed that in 2005, Veolia Water's investment in China amounted to 470 million euros.

It has been learned that as early as 2002, Veolia Water Resources Group will shift its strategic focus to international business development in Asia, and China has become the top priority of its Asian expansion.

Frerot, Veolia Water future will continue to strengthen its business in China and to actively participate in and promote China's water utility market and the reform and opening up areas for future business in the Asian market share of the internal operations rose from less than 2% to 121 now. China's market and to ensure the business achieve double-digit growth.

As China gradually break down water and other municipal utilities in the area of long-term monopoly, investors have great potential to accelerate the pace of the water to seize Chinese market. Currently, Veolia, Suez, Berlin, as well as the water supply almost all the world's leading Water Resources Group have entered the Chinese market.