Address at the High-Level International Conference
on Millennium Development Goals

By H.E. Mr. Zhai Haohui,
Vice Minister , Ministry of Water Resources,
The People's Republic of China
25 March 2004, Beijing

Honorable Chairman, Ladies and Gentleman:

On behalf of the Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China, I would hereby express my sincere congratulations on the convening of the High Level International Conference on Millennium Development Goals.

Safe drinking water is the fundamental demand of humans. The Millennium Declaration by the United Nations advocated to reduce by half, by the year of 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water. The heads of states and governments have committed to realize the above goal by the year of 2015. Today, I am delighted to share with you my present views on the measures adopted by China to supply safe drinking water in rural areas, the achievements so far and the blueprint of our future work. My speech covers the following four parts:

I.  Challenges Confronted by China on Rural Safe Drinking Water
Comparatively, China is a country short of water resources. The precipitation of China is unevenly distributed in terms of season and space: more in the southeast while less in the northwest; more in summer and autumn while less in spring and winter. This kind of intensive fluctuation by seasons and areas results in the resource-oriented water scarcity in north China and the seasonal water scarcity in the south. Additionally, the complicated geographic status and the unbalanced economic development worsen deficiency of drinking water that has been existing in the rural areas for quite a long time. At present, China is confronted with two major issues on supplying safe drinking water in the rural areas:

1. Water Shortage
In some parts of the northwest, north and northeast of China, the annual precipitation is 200-600mm; and these regions are suffering from drought in consecutive years, which leads to chronic water shortages. In some regions of southwest、south and middle parts of China, the annual precipitation is above 1000mm; however, due to complicated topographic, physiognomic and geologic conditions, such as steep mountains and deep valleys, and insufficient water storage facilities as well, water is very difficult to be stored and put into use. Water shortage is more serious for those people who live in the mountainous regions where water is as precious as oil.

2. Poor Quality of Water
Due to the influence of the chemical components of groundwater, the high-florin water and salty water are distributed widely in the areas of northeast and north China ,and the plain covering Yellow River, Huai River and Hai River basins, which is the cause of many aqueous endemics if often drunk, such as skeleton metamorphose and weak wisdom. Furthermore, the industrial wastewater and domestic sewage have heavily polluted drinking water in some regions; so the content of microorganisms and poisonous materials contained in water greatly exceeds the limitation and makes water one of the major mediums to induce and spread diseases.

Water is of vital importance to human life and health. Scientific research indicates that water constitutes 59% ~ 66% of human body. To meet the basic requirement of health, a person needs at least 20-liter drinking water per day. Considering with other water using for daily life, the total amount of water consumption for a person per day is approximately 50 liters. According to the statistics, in the developing countries about 80% of diseases are induced by unsafe water and poor sanitation conditions, which also cause over 5 million people to death every year. In China, over 50 kinds of diseases are generated or spread through drinking water. Therefore, the most efficient way to decrease diseases and improve the health levels is to make sure that all the people can obtain safe drinking water and qualified sanitation conditions.

II.  Policies and Measures Adopted by Chinese Government to Solve Rural Water Drinking Difficulties.

The Chinese government has conducted a series of actions and implemented a series of policies to solve the difficulties in drinking water supply in rural areas.

Firstly, taking the rural drinking water works as the key public small-size infrastructure to support. The Chinese government clearly indicates that "six small-scale projects", including water-saving irrigation, drinking water for human and livestock, rural roads, rural bio-gas, rural hydropower and enclosed herding, has positive impacts on improving farmer's working and living conditions, increasing the employment rate and the rural habitants' income and that the investment into these projects shall be further augmented, the items of construction enriched and the scope of construction extended.

Secondly, regarding it an important responsibility of government at all levels to settle the problem of drinking water in rural areas. This task must be carried out under the leadership of the major leaders of the governments, while the governments at all levels also share the responsibilities. The governments play a key role in the process and activate and organize those farmers who have benefited from it and all social resources to actively participate in the task.

Thirdly, listing the drinking water safety as the priority of the water-related work. The principle of planning holistically and implementing step by step will be persisted so as to solve the difficulties of drinking water supply first and then gradually raise the standards. The technical guidance and training will be strengthened. The use of new technologies will be promoted in accordance with the practical situation of the localities, including water exploration, water lifting，rainwater collection and utilization, and treatment of poor-quality water, etc. Meanwhile, the on-site technical guidance and the training on sanitary drinking water are actively conducted.

Fourthly, exploring the most effective management measures that fit the rural areas during the construction of water works. First is to establish the register and make-public system for those who have difficulties in getting drinking water. That is to, on the basis of programming, specify the number of people of each rural group or family who have difficulties in access to drinking water, and make public the number of people in newspapers and magazines, which will effectively avoid the random arrangement of plans and funds. The second is to adopt the reimbursement system for construction investment. That is, after paying a small amount of initiating capital, under the principle of implementing construction first and receiving payment later, the amount used will be reimbursed periodically according to the scale of investment. The third is the uniform procurement of equipment and material, which makes it easy to manage, and ensures the quality of the equipment and materials, and also can get a preferential price thus lowers the cost of the project. The fourth is the supervision of the project's quality. The strict supervision will be implemented for the large-scale water supply project according to the requirement of capital construction procedures while employing the specialized supervision institution and staff to conduct itinerant supervision in different areas according to the geographical distribution of the projects and inviting the beneficiary farmers to join the supervision.

Fifthly, consistently reforming and improving the management system and operational mechanism. The different management methods are applied according to the different types and scales of projects. For the smaller rainwater collection projects such as water cellar, water pool and water tank, etc., the system that the government provides subsidy while the rural users build, own, manage and use the projects by themselves is adopted; for the small-scale drinking water projects of the natural villages or administrative villages, the system that the government makes subsidy while the farmers raise funds for the projects by themselves adopted, and the beneficiary farmers establish water users association to conduct self-management; for the regional water supply project across different villages and counties, the system of combining the management by the specific organizations and by the beneficiary villages as well as the water users association is adopted to charge reasonable price for water supply and promote the benign operation of the project. In principle, the water price shall be fixed at the cost price. For some poor areas, water is charged at fixed price gradually in the premise that the operation and maintenance cost are ensured.

Sixthly, strengthening the management of drinking water industry in rural areas. The State Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources have jointly issued The Deliverance on Further Solving Drinking Water Difficulties in Rural Areas. The Ministry of Water Resources has formulated The Deliverance on Strengthening Water Supply Project Management in Villages and Towns, and is working out other regulations and standards such as Ordinance on Water Supply in Rural Areas, Evaluation Guideline for Safe Drinking Water in Rural Areas, Staff Positioning for Water Supply Stations in Towns and Villages, Qualification for Water Supply Units in Towns and Villages, Technical Specifications for Water Supply Projects in Villages and Towns, etc.

III.  Progress and Achievement

With the support of the policies and measures as mentioned above, China has obtained evident achievements in the process of improving the rural people's water-drinking conditions. Accumulatively 250 million people through out the country have been helped out of the drinking water difficulties. Since the year of 2000, China's Central Government has invested a total amount of ￥ 8.5 billion, with the addition of local governments' support and people's self-funding, in solving more than 50 million rural people's drinking-water difficulties, including over 3.7 million people who had the problem that the content of fluorine and arsenic in drinking water was beyond criterion.

The implementation of the Project of Solving Drinking Water Difficulties has brought up tremendous economical, social and ecological benefits as following:

First, diseases have been reduced and people's health has been improved. The settlement of drinking water problems directly reduces the incidence of diseases diffused by water. What is more, since it also accelerates the improvement of both environmental and individual sanitation, incidence of diseases caused by poor hygiene conditions is also decreased indirectly. Consequently, health status of rural people has been improved, especially that of women and children.

Second, the time of water drawing has been saved and labor force has been released. According to the relative surveys and typical analyses, thanks to the implementation of the Project of Solving Drinking Water Difficulties, the average time of water drawing of 5-member families has been reduced by 50 days, from 70 to 20 days per year. The labor and time saved can be used in labor export, as well as in production and other activities that increase incomes.

Third, courtyard economy has been developed which helps farmers out of poverty and be well-off. The improvement of water-drinking conditions helps increase the survival rate of livestock and boost both quantity and quality. The comprehensive utilization of this project has ensured the water sources for courtyard plantation and processing industry in rural areas.

Last but not the least, the relation between the government and farmers has become closer.

IV.  Action Plan for the Near Future on Settling Problems of Safe Drinking Water in Rural Areas of China.

In accordance with the layout of the 10th "Five-year plan", China will solve the problems of drinking water for 50.2 million rural people on the whole by the year of 2005. The current situation indicates that this goal can be achieved in advance.

In the past, the implementation of the Project of Solving Drinking Water Difficulties mainly concentrated on water shortage. However, poor water quality in some areas was also very serious. Drinking water safety problems such as high fluorine water, high arsenic water, bitter and salty water and polluted water have posed a severe threat to people's health, both physically and mentally. Drinking water safety in rural areas has become one serious problem that is most concerned by the people, and also is the most urgent problem to solve. In the future, in order to accommodate to the requirement of building a well-off society in an all-round way, and on the basis of effectively solving current drinking water problems, China will shift its working focus from drinking water difficulty to drinking water safety.

The general ideas to solve the safety problem of drinking water in rural area are: persist in human-orientation, establish an all-round, coordinated and sustainable scientific concept of development, and take comprehensive preventing and treating measures combining engineering and non-engineering methods, water treatment and water sources preservation, which adapt to the general requirement of building a well-off society in an all-round way, and aim at improving the quality and condition of drinking water in rural areas and ensuring the safety of drinking water, thus make every effort to substantially solve the safety problem of drinking water in rural areas.

The basic principles that should be ever persisted in to solve the safety problem of drinking water in rural areas are: ensure the sustainability of water sources; set up a construction and administrative mechanism which assures the effective operation of projects; stick to the combination of short-term and long-term benefits; plan as a whole and carry it out step by step; adhere to the investing policy of combining the people's self-funding and the government's support.

The goal of drinking water tasks in rural areas is: by the year of 2005, all the drinking water difficulties faced by 50.2 million rural residents as scheduled in the 10th Five-Year Plan will be solved completely. During the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the priority will be given to solving the problem of drinking water that is under criteria, such as high fluorine water, high arsenic water, bitter and salty water and polluted water, and the problem of severe shortage of drinking water in local areas, in order to assure that 60 million people can be in access to safe drinking water. Before the end of the year 2015, the proportion of the population that have no access to or cannot afford safe drinking water should be reduced by half.

Ladies and gentlemen, the development of water supply in rural areas of China has received much concerns and support from the relevant organizations of the United Nations and the governments from many other countries. On behalf of the Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you all.

It is the common aspiration of all human beings that safe drinking water should be supplied to every one of us. In the following 15 to 20 years, China will make the best of its effort to provide safe drinking water to 300 million rural people. In order to realize the Millennium Development Goals, China wishes to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with other countries and international organizations and will appreciate continuous support from the international community.

In this early spring, Beijing witnesses a picture of prosperity everywhere. As an international metropolis, ancient but also young, Beijing shows its long history with its world-renowned historical places such as the Great Wall and Forbidden City. At the same time, it also exhibits in front of us its vigor and prosperity with those modern buildings newly built since the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world. New Beijing which changes with each passing day would welcome the commencement of the 19th Congress of International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage in a more open way. Let me extend a warm welcome to all friends from other countries and international organizations to come to this event.

Finally, I wish the High-Level International Conference of Millennium Development Goals a complete success, and all the representatives and experts a pleasant stay in Beijing.

Thank you!