China to give more rural residents access to tap water

China aims to increase the proportion of rural residents that have access to tap water to 85 percent by the end of this year, the Ministry of Water Resources said.

The ministry will make accelerated efforts to promote the construction of water supply projects in rural China, according to a document outlining the ministry's key tasks for this year that was unveiled on Monday.

By the end of 2020, 83 percent of rural residents in the country had access to tap water, the ministry said in a previous news release.

The document also said the ministry will increase monitoring of water supplies in areas that have shaken off poverty as it strives to enhance overall water quality.

Another priority of the ministry's work in rural China is to beef up construction of irrigation and drainage systems, it said. Aside from building more large and medium-sized irrigated areas in regions previously plagued by poverty, it will endeavor to improve supporting facilities for existing irrigated areas of similar scale.

Furthermore, it said the ministry will ramp up efforts to improve rural areas' ability to manage flooding. More measures will be rolled out to reinforce reservoirs with safety hazards and address problems in small and medium-sized rivers.