During interviews by Xinhua News, China Daily & CCTV, Mr. Chen Lei, the Minister of Water Resources summarized achievements gained in the 11th Five Year Plan period and introduced the blueprint for the next five years.
In the 11th Five Year Plan, China has introduced new water management measures such as strictest water resources management system, replacing flood control by flood management, from water supply management to water demand management and emphasizing both water development and protection.
In the 11th Five Year Plan period, another 210 million rural population are provided with safe drinking water, meaning that China achieved the goal put forward by the UN Millennium Declaration, i.e. halving the proportion of population without access to safe drinking water by the end of 2015, six years ahead of time. By the end of this year, reinforcement of 6240 large, medium and small hazard reservoirs will be completed. Newly increased and improved irrigated areas reaches to 433 million mu. Rehabilitation of 434 large irrigation districts has carried out. The construction of 400 electrification counties has completed that enables nearly all rural population access to electricity.
Water is a public good and a strategic resource, and also the foundation for agricultural development and irreplaceable resources for social and economic development, moreover it is crucial for the improvement of ecological environment, said Minister Chen.
In the 12th Five Year Plan, the main objectives are as follows: the annual average direct economic loss caused by floods reduce to 0.7% of the GDP; urban water supply capability increase by 40 billion cubic meters; annual average direct economic loss caused by draught reduced to 1.1% of the GDP; basic infrastructure for agricultural production should be significantly improved, with more water saving facilities adopted in more than 70% large irrigation districts and 50% key medium and small irrigation districts. Water use efficiency and benefit will be greatly enhanced; water consumption per 10,000 GDP will decrease to 140 cubic meters, and water consumption per 10,000 industrial added values decrease to 80 cubic meters. The effective water utilization ratio of irrigation increased to 0.53. In addition, more strict measures will be applied to water environment protection and improvement of river basin ecosystem, as well as water administration and water dispute settlement.