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 | Monday, May 08, 2000, updated at 11:20(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Chinese Farmers Pay to IrrigateFarmers along the Yellow River will pay 0.053 yuan per cubic meter to irrigate their crops with water from China's second-longest river.The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China worked out the new fee rule in order to stop what is called "the excessive flood irrigation" in the area. Local farmers formerly paid water fees based on the amount of land they planned to irrigate. One hundred cubic meters of Yellow River water costs less than a bottle of mineral water. Wasting water resources caused by the flood irrigation has become a serious problem in the area which has been diverting water from Yellow River for more than 2,000 years. Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing, has been mired in a water crisis for four consecutive years due to longtime drought and overuse of water. Farmers of the province will have to pay the water they use like the people in the cities. Charges will be worked out first in pilot areas this year and the next year and then the prices for use of water for various purposes will be decided and executed in the whole of the province. Water used for agricultural purposes accounts for 70 to 80 percent of the 22 billion cubic meters of water consumed annually in the province, according to local officials.
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