Safe drinking water a top priority for China

China still has 110 million people, including more than 15 million students and teachers, in rural China without access to safe drinking water, a senior official said on Friday.

"Providing every rural family with safe water to drink by 2015 is at the top of the agenda of the Ministry of Water Resources this year and the next," Jiao Yong, vice-minister of water resources, told a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

Premier Li Keqiang promised to fix drinking water problems for more than 60 million rural residents this year during the annual parliamentary meeting last week.