Students who live in remote areas of Western China's Sichuan Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will soon be able to wash their hands after using newly installed sanitary toilets in their local schools. The United Nations Development Program and Chinese authorities have jointly launched a program to improve the sanitation conditions in rural China. Our reporter Chen Xi has more.

Reporter:

The program is titled "Water Resources Management and Drinking Water Safety in Rural Regions of China".

It's sponsored by the United Nations Development Program, or the UNDP, China's ministries of Water Resources and Commerce, and beverage giant Coca-Cola.

It's the first public-private partnership program in China to improve clean water access and sanitation in rural areas.


Khalid Malik is UNDP Resident Representative in China.

"Delivering clean water, treating waste water and providing sanitation are three of the most basic foundations for human progress. The poor need 'water for life' for drinking, cooking and washing, as well as water to grow food and earn a living."

The program aims to benefit impoverished communities across the country, especially in western China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Sichuan province, and northern China's Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces.

"Every dollar invested in water and sanitation yield multiple benefits in productive activity. This compounds into immeasurable health and raising living standards."

Sanitary toilets will be installed in schools to reduce waterborne diseases.

Other measures, including health education and technical training of school health management, will be taken to raise hygiene awareness and education amongst primary school students.

The program also includes rebuilding of drainage pipelines and ecologically sustainable agricultural technologies for water conservation.

By August, pilot programs will be set up in four primary schools in rural Sichuan and Xinjiang, where basic sanitation systems are barely available.

Chen Xi, CRI news.