400 Trillion Yuan to Boost China's Water Infrastructure

China will invest 4 trillion yuan, the largest sum ever, to boost its water infrastructure for the next ten years. Experts believe that building adequate water infrastructure has become an urgent issue, due to frequent floods and droughts.

Sun Fenggang, head of Guishu County in Shandong Province, has a headache as he leads the rural county forward.

"My county is not rich in water resources, but we have to watch more than 1 billion cubic meters of water get wasted annually due to out-dated water facilities. We've made a series of plans to improve our water usage."

Sun Fenggang says he is glad to learn about the central government's plan to boost water infrastructure construction.

The Ministry of Water Resources says the plan focuses on the repairing and maintenance of old reservoirs, reinforcing water facilities to withstand disasters, and ensuring drinking water safety and water conservation.

Total investment may amount up to four trillion yuan, or more than 600 billion U.S. dollars during the next 10 years, as disclosed by sources from the Department of Water Resources of Sichuan Province.

Li Binglong, a professor from China Agricultural University, says this move is triggered by China's urgent need to cope with frequent natural disasters in recent years.

"The western and northern part of China is the granary of the country's grain harvest. These areas are threatened by naturally disasters. The investments would build sound water facilities to guarantee people's daily water supply and a proper amount of irrigation water, even under extreme conditions."

In the past five years, only 100 billion yuan went to this area in China annually, far below the 650 billion yuan on road construction and 450 billion yuan for railways.

With more funds going to water infrastructure, experts offer opinions on how to use money to the fullest.

Lv Juan, from China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, suggests that the government focuses on small and medium-sized projects construction.

"It's not that there are not enough big water facilities, but we see when the drought occurred last year, the water just couldn't get to remote villages. We should connect big water facilities to farmlands and residential houses to make water, both for daily and agricultural purposes, accessible."

But professor Li Binglong from China Agricultural University points out to build a well-functioning water system requires much more than just an investment. He calls for the establishment of a sound management mechanism to make sure the facilities are taken good care of.

For CRI, I'm Tingting.