Rural drinking Water Safety Project is urgent to solve the "Water shortage" of Farmers in Northwest China

Despite a series of severe droughts in the central arid zone of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous region in recent years, the family of Ma Hanyu, a Hui farmer in Xiaonanchuan Village, Caowa Township, Haiyuan County, no longer worries about drinking water.

"now the draught is so convenient that it comes as soon as you turn the faucet." Ma Hanyu said.

In January last year, a rural drinking water safety project with a total investment of nearly 30 million yuan was started to solve the drinking water difficulties of about 5000 farmers in five townships in the south of Haiyuan County. By the end of last year, the main project of the rural drinking water safety project was completed, and 1800 households, including Ma Hanyu's, had access to tap water.

Ma Hanyu said that in every dry year, his family had to go more than 30 kilometers away to get water, and the cost of eating a ton of water was as high as 60 yuan. Now, tap water flows into his kitchen, and the water money for eight people is only more than 10 yuan a month.

The arid zone in central Ningxia is surrounded by Maowusu Sandy Land, Tengger and Wulanbuhe Desert. The average annual rainfall is only about 200 mm, and water resources are extremely scarce. The local rural areas rely on digging cement cellars to store rain and snow water or digging mountain springs to solve the problem of drinking water for people and livestocks. In every dry year, when the cellar is dry, farmers have to travel tens of kilometers to buy water at high prices, and even farmers escape the phenomenon of "water shortage".

After the founding of New China, especially since the 1980s, the state and local governments have concentrated investment in building a number of water supply projects in the arid zone of central Ningxia, and implemented projects such as solving difficulties in rural drinking water, improving water for fluorosis and arsenic disease, and drinking water safety in rural areas. however, until the new century, many people here still worry about drinking water.

According to a survey conducted by the water conservancy department, by the end of 2004, 758800 people in the arid zone of central Ningxia had unsafe drinking water, accounting for 56 per cent of the total local rural population. Among them, as many as 550000 of them have a serious shortage of drinking water and extremely poor water quality. these people often make a living by pulling water from a long distance, with an average cost of more than 100 yuan per cubic meter of water, with a heavy economic burden.

It is difficult to guarantee drinking water for a large number of farmers in the arid zone of Ningxia, which has aroused great attention and concern at the top of the country. During the May Day period in 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council personally led a team to Ningxia for on-the-spot investigation and research and put forward solutions. In that year, Ningxia officially launched the rural drinking water safety project in the central arid zone, and decided to solve the basic drinking water safety problem for 550000 of the most water-deficient people by 2010, and the remaining population would take another 10 years to solve it, so as to establish a drinking water safety guarantee system suitable for local rural areas.

In the past four years, various drinking water safety measures in the arid zone of central Ningxia have been implemented in an orderly manner. Up to now, a total of 490 million yuan has been invested, 58 centralized water supply projects in rural areas have been completed, 39000 high-standard concrete catchment sites have been built, and the drinking water safety problem of 520000 people with the most difficult drinking water has been solved.

Li Zhenqi, an official of the Rural Water Conservancy Department of Ningxia Water Resources Department, told reporters: "although it will take time to completely solve the problem of drinking water in rural areas in the arid zone of central Ningxia, the phenomenon of running away from 'water shortage' in dry years has been put an end to."