China's rural water supply scaling up, challenges remain

This year's World Water Day, themed "leaving no one behind", comes after a dry winter in northern China. With one fifth of the world's population, and only six percent of its water resources, China's per capita water resources are far below the global average.

In rural areas, particularly, hundreds of thousands of people are short of potable water and susceptible to drought. That has an inevitable impact on the area's ability to improve their economy.

Chinese central government has vowed to bring tap water to 80 percent of the rural population by 2020 as part its poverty relief, including water supply. In Kazuo Mongolian Autonomous County, one of the driest places in northeastern China, conditions are getting better after years of infrastructure development.

60-year-old villager Hou Zhanming told CGTN that some 80 families in his village no longer struggle with everyday water use. He still remembers the old days when a donkey cart was the only way for him to get drinking water back home from miles away.

Tap water at Kazuo villager's home. /CGTN Photo

The convenience for people and livestock to drink good-quality water has spared him more time to do farm work and even get a part-time job outside. But Hou's wish list is yet to be fulfilled - he hopes soon he can use public deep-well water for irrigation instead of his small, draining up well. On the driest days, farmers in this region have no choice but to sow and wait for the rain. Simply put, farming still relies heavily on luck.

At Baojing Cooperative Farm, some pioneers are fighting against their fate with intensive farming and water-saving facilities. This shows the bigger goal that water supply and sustainability should not just help farmers make a living but also a stable gain.

Li Baojiang, director of the cooperative farm said only a few villagers used membrane-facilitated drip irrigation in the beginning. And it turned out to be less labor-intensive, more water-conserving and more productive. "Then all the rest joined in and we could better develop efficient irrigating methods," said Li.

Many villagers place fortune symbols on their wells to wish for a stable water supply all year around. /CGTN Photo

These are not single cases in Kazuo. Local government has made it a priority to promote safe drinking water and water-efficient irrigation projects. The authorities report that the majority are enjoying sanitary tap water. And more areas benefit from modern farming methods, especially impoverished ones. But meanwhile, still about half of the farmland and nearly one-third of villagers are doing things the old way. Most don't lack water, but are vulnerable to drought risk.

China's minister of water resources has predicted that this summer's rainfall will be less than normal in northern China, and extreme weather is likely to be more frequent. That will make regions like this county more prone to drought.

And even though China has established a water supply system serving about nine hundred million rural people, the supply now has a few new problems, namely low water levels, an increase in water use, and pollution.

Yang Haiwen, deputy director of Kazuo Water Resources Department, said they will focus on not just establishment but also operation of safe drinking water facilities and water resource management, considering that the area is naturally short of water. "And we plan to encourage farmers to plant drought-enduring trees to counter the main difficulty that some hill plots are too dry and too scattered to develop water-efficient farming," Yang added.

At the recent Two Sessions, China's annual political meetings of legislators and advisors, problems have also been addressed. The country will continue to raise fiscal expenditure to extend water supply projects and enhance their sustainability. The government will also roll out strict mechanisms of responsibility and supervision to make sure the goodwill is implemented well at the regional level.

Arid land in Kazuo. /CGTN Photo

(CGTN)