Water conservation project investment totals 3.58 trillion yuan in 13th Five-Year Plan

China has invested 3.58 trillion yuan ($552.8 billion) for water conservation projects in the past five years, larger than the GDP of Sweden in 2019 ($531 billion). 

The investment in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) is 57 percent more than the prior five-year plan period, according to a media release from the Ministry of Water Resources on Monday.

Thanks to the investment, the country managed to divert 36.7 billion cubic meters of water, which has markedly enhanced water security in some key river basins, the ministry's release said.

The investment also yielded great improvement in the ecosystem of the country's natural water bodies. Illegal invasions into rivers and lakes, including illegal sand exploitation and construction, have been essentially addressed, it added.

The release said the country managed in the past five years to treat a total area of 300,000 square kilometers of land that suffer water and soil loss.

Breakthroughs have been made in the management of excessive exploitation of underground water in North China, which covers Beijing. The levels of underground water in some areas have started to rise, rather than keep going down, the release said.

And the investment has benefited a large number of those in the rural population, according to the ministry.

So far, 83 percent of the country's rural residents have had access to tap water. In total, the ministry has managed to guarantee clean and safe drinking water to 17.1 million poverty-stricken people in the past five years, it said.