Ministry moves to ensure all rural households have water access

The Ministry of Water Resources will roll out tailored measures to ensure that all rural households will be covered by water supply projects.

Li Guoying, minister of water resources, made the remark at a conference on rural water supply in Guyuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Wednesday.

Li said the promotion of the integrated development of urban and rural water supply systems should be prioritized, especially in areas with major water diversion projects and medium-sized and large reservoirs.

For places where urban water supply systems can't be extended to rural areas, local water resources should make all-out efforts to build centralized water facilities that supply over 1,000 metric tons of water or serve 10,000 people every day, he noted.

In other areas, the ministry will promote standardized small-scaled water supply facilities to make sure that "not a single household will be left behind", he stressed.

Li also pledged to intensify efforts to strengthen the management of rural water supply facilities.

The ministry will establish unified systems for the management, monitoring and maintenance of the facilities in all county-level areas, he said.

He said by the end of this year, all rural centralized water supply facilities will be equipped with purification and disinfection equipment.