Water supply improved, but challenges remain

LANZHOU: Some 1.8 million rural residents have gained access to safe drinking water over the past two years in Gansu province, but more than 10 million others still subsist on dirty water or face shortages, statistics show.

Starting 2006, the Gansu provincial government earmarked 850 million yuan ($116 million) for programs to provide tap water for people living in rural areas who had been collecting rain for household use, Yao Jinzhong, of the Gansu provincial department of water resources, said.

"We helped each rural household build a small water reservoir to collect rain, but that water usually turned bad after a while," Yao said.