More efforts urged to tackle water deficiency in Beijing

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 03, 2003

More efforts urged to tackle water deficiency in Beijing

Officials with the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources said that more painstaking efforts were required to resolve the water shortage problem in the Chinese capital city.

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Officials with the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources said that more painstaking efforts were required to resolve the water shortage problem in the Chinese capital city.

Wu Jisong, a senior official takes charge of water resources with the ministry, said on Friday about 50 million cubic meters of water flowed through canals from north China's Shanxi and arrived on Sept. 30 at the Guanting reservoir to the west of Beijing municipality, one of the two major water reservoirs for the Beijing area.

According to government plans, Shanxi will become a regular water supplier for Beijing. This will benefit environment protection in the neighboring areas and upper reaches of the Songgan river flowing through Beijing, said Jiao Zhizhong, director with Beijing Water Resources Bureau.

Zhao Tan, an official with the Guanting reservoir management, said that there were only 176 million cubic meters of water in thereservoir, a record low figure since its establishment 49 years ago. The total capacity is over four billion cubic meters but a space of roughly 650 million cubic meters was filled up by silt.

Beijing has enacted policies to encourage water saving in almost every aspect of life and by the end of this year the government expected to save 100 million cubic meters. Meanwhile, the city will also gradually halt the planting acreage of rice, a crop that needs plenty of water, and winter wheat.

There was also a steep rise in the water prices from 1.76 yuan (21 cents) per cubic meter four years ago to the current 4.07 yuan(49 cents).

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