China has seen remarkable economic development in recent years. But the country now faces severe challenges such as a lack of water resources and deteriorating quality of water.


The Chinese government vows to take measures to meet these challenges.

Our reporter Liu Yan has more.

In a recent forum held in Singapore, Chinese Vice-Minister of Water Resources Hu Siyi pointed out that China is not abundant in water resources. He said water distribution was not balanced in either season or location.

Hu said given such a situation, the country should consider saving more water.

"We should build reservoirs to improve our capability of storing water. We should also emphasize water conservation in our society."

At present, China consumes 560 billion cubic meters of water every year. There are 85,000 reservoirs in the country, meeting the demand of households and industries in the country.

At the forum, the vice minister also spoke about other water-related problems China faced.

"First, we face many floods. Secondly, the lack of water has restricted the country's economic development. Third, the quality of water has been deteriorating."

Hu Siyi said the Chinese government has laid out a plan to address these problems and make water resources more sustainable.

"We should encourage a society that focuses on saving water. We plan to introduce 100 pilot projects to promote water conversation, and then extend it to the whole country. We also need to pay more attention to alleviating the risks and aftermath of floods."

The vice-minister said efforts should be made to aid water conservancy in rural areas to ensure the quality of drinking water.

Liu Yan, CRI news.