Small water projects help improve Chinese farmers' living standard

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 23, 2004

Small water projects help improve Chinese farmers' living standard

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Gone are the days when people of Xiangzhulin Village of Yunnan Province, southwest China, had to walk for three to four kilometers to fetch drinking water every day, thanks to a series of water projects, which enable locals to get water at home.

With the completion of 438 small water storage ponds before theSpring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 22 on the western calendar, Xiangzhulin villagers are hoping for abetter future.

"The small ponds do away with the need to fetch water every dayand we now can concentrate our efforts on making profits by breeding pigs and chickens," villager Lei Huansheng said.

With a population of over 6,700, Xiangzhulin, in the Dai and Wa Autonomous County of Gengma, is located in a mountainous area short of drinking water.

To get water for daily life, each family had to send at least one person to fetch water from areas three to four kilometers away.

Gengma County launched a project to build small water storage ponds last year and completed 438 within four months. "More will be built this year," said Zhou Taiyou, an official with Mengyong Township.

Zhou said small water storage ponds were expected to play a keyrole in improving the living standard of the locals. He said his township planned to build a walnut growing base in Xiangzhulin village this year.

Construction of the small water storage ponds, each with a capacity of 25 cubic meters, is part of a project Yunnan has launched to solve the shortage of drinking water for rural people.

Yunnan boasts rich water sources, but many rural people living in mountainous areas are short of drinking water. By 2000, Yunnan still had 5 million rural people who faced shortages of drinking water.

Yunnan has invested 8.69 trillion yuan (1.05 trillion US dollars) in the construction of over 100,000 drinking water projects over the past three years, enabling 3.43 million people living in mountainous areas to have access to drinking water. Thanks to the water projects, 1.07 million rural people in the province had access to drinking water last year.

According to plan, Yunnan will pour over 300 million yuan (36.28 million US dollars) to help 900,000 more rural families to haveaccess to drinking water this year.

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