China to advance 150 key water conservancy projects: ministry

BEIJING -- China will accelerate its work on 150 major water conservancy projects in 2021, the Ministry of Water Resources said Monday.

These projects involve emergency water supplies under the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, flood prevention in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and water supplies for the Xiong'an New Area, said E Jingping, minister of water resources, at a work conference.

The ministry will ramp up credit support for such projects and encourage the use of special local government bonds and bank loans for fund-raising, the minister said.

China unveiled a list last year of 150 major water conservancy projects, with 45 of them having been kick-started, according to the ministry.

The country's investment in water conservancy hit an all-time high of 769.5 billion yuan (about 119 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, up 6 percent year on year, data from the ministry showed.