The situation and tasks of rural drinking water safety in China

China is a major agricultural country and also the most populous developing country in the world. Compared to developed countries worldwide, there is still a significant gap in economic and social development, especially rural areas, which are relatively backward. Due to natural, economic, and social constraints, rural residents have long faced difficulties in drinking water and issues with water safety. Coupled with China's long-standing urban-rural dual development policy, rural water supply facilities have become very weak. Urban water supply and other infrastructure projects have developed rapidly due to strong government investment; Most rural water supply facilities are mainly built by village collectives and farmers themselves, with insufficient investment, resulting in rural water supply mainly being traditional, backward, small, scattered, and rudimentary, with low tap water penetration rates.

the main factors affecting the development of rural water supply include local living conditions, water resources, water environment, hydrogeology, topography, landforms, and economic development levels, as well as the country's economic strength and policies.

rural populations are economically and culturally backward, with weak awareness of drinking water hygiene, and production and business activities are mainly individualized. Per capita net income is only about one-quarter that of local urban residents. Due to low income levels, most rural families bear heavy living burdens. Besides daily living expenses, expenses such as building a house, children's education, and medical care can consume all their savings or even go into debt.

affected by monsoon climate, precipitation in China is unevenly distributed over time and space, with large annual variations. Whether in the north or south, seasonal water shortages such as winter drought and spring drought are common. Especially in the arid and semi-arid northern regions, total precipitation is insufficient, with droughts nine times every ten years. Some rural areas lack both surface water and groundwater, and certain arid areas in the northwest are strictly unsuitable for human habitation. Over the past decade, due to climate change, the distribution of precipitation has become even more uneven. Most areas in the northwest, north China, and northeast China frequently experience severe or continuous droughts, groundwater levels have dropped, and many springs, streams, and rivers have dried up, greatly impacting rural drinking water sources, especially the problem of shallow wells drying up and failing.

China is also a hilly country, with 70% of its total land area being hilly areas. The terrain in the hilly area is complex, with scattered farmers' residences and a lack of water or difficulty accessing water. People living on hillsides and ridges far from surface water experience a severe drop in shallow groundwater levels during dry and rainy seasons. The rocky mountain areas and most of the hilly areas in the northwest have no shallow groundwater at all. Severe rocky desertification in mountainous areas and the Loess Plateau has deep underground water buried and difficult to extract. In limestone areas, the surface cannot store water, making it difficult to find and extract groundwater. The drinking water problem in hilly areas is specifically reflected in difficulties in water extraction in the deep southern mountainous areas, severe seasonal water shortages in shallow hilly areas, which are engineering-related water shortages; In the northern hilly areas, water extraction is difficult and seasonal water shortages are severe, and there is often no surface or groundwater available, making it a resource water shortage.

due to hydrogeological conditions and human activities such as mining causing environmental damage, areas prone to sedimentation such as coastal areas, low plains, lakes, loops, ancient rivers, floodplains, mountain depressions, and mining areas have high levels of harmful mineral components in some groundwaters, such as fluorine, arsenic, iron, manganese, or excessive salt content, making them unsuitable for direct drinking and causing serious water shortages in rural areas.

China lacks freshwater resources, with per capita water only one-third of the world's total, and the distribution is uneven: more in the south and less in the north; more in the east but less in the west; many mountainous areas but few plains; In densely populated areas and the middle and lower reaches of rivers, water quality continues to deteriorate; Sparsely populated hilly areas face difficulties in water resource development and utilization; The water sources of small, decentralized water supply projects have very low resistance to floods and droughts, and their reliability is poor.

With the development of industrial and agricultural production and population growth, the contradiction between water supply and demand has become increasingly prominent. Overexploitation of groundwater leads to a severe drop in groundwater levels, with underground funnels continuously appearing and expanding. Enterprises have increased wastewater discharge, pesticide and fertilizer use, domestic sewage wastewater is discharged arbitrarily for a long time, and household garbage is piled up carelessly for a long time. The lack of drainage and pollution control measures has worsened water source pollution, especially in densely populated plain areas, where living water environments continue to deteriorate. Harmful pollutants such as microorganisms and organic matter in drinking water exceed standards, exacerbating rural water quality shortages.

According to the 2004 China Water Resources Bulletin, in 2004, precipitation in most regions of China decreased by 6.5% compared to the normal level, surface water resources decreased by 13.4%, and groundwater resources with mineralization less than or equal to 2g/L decreased by 7.8% compared to the normal value. At year-end, shallow groundwater storage in the Northern Plain decreased by 6.8 billion m³ compared to the beginning of the year. In severely overexploited areas, 76 groundwater funnels fell and a total area of 72,000 km². At year-end and at the beginning of the year, 23 shallow funnels expanded and 21 had central water levels fall; 16 deep funnels had expanded areas and 27 had lower central water heads. River water quality: river chiefs who met or exceeded Class III water accounted for 59.4% of the total evaluated river chiefs, a decrease of 3 percentage points compared to 2003; Reservoir water quality accounts for 17.7% of the water above Class III.

the above water resource issues, especially the continuous deterioration of the water environment, the large-scale over-extraction of groundwater in northern regions leading to groundwater level declines, and the worsening drought trend in some areas, all bring new adverse impacts on rural drinking water.

1. The journey of rural drinking water relief

since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Party and government have always paid close attention to the drinking water difficulties faced by rural residents. Especially since the reform and opening up, efforts to address rural drinking water difficulties have been continuously intensified. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, central government investment was further intensified, making drinking water relief more scientific and standardized, which has alleviated the severe water shortage in rural areas. The process of rural drinking water relief roughly went through the following stages:

(2) In the 1970s~1980s, solving rural drinking water issues was officially included in the government's work agenda, supporting rural drinking water difficulties through work-for-relief and allocating special funds from small-scale farmland water conservancy subsidies. In 1983, the State Council forwarded the "Interim Measures for the Prevention and Control of Local Fluorine Poisoning in Water Reform," and in 1984, the "Report on Accelerating the Resolution of Rural Drinking Water Problems for People and Livestock" and the "Interim Provisions on Rural Drinking Water Work" were forwarded, gradually standardizing rural drinking water relief work.

(3) In the 1990s, solving rural drinking water difficulties was officially included in national planning. In 1991, the state formulated the "National 10-Year Plan for Rural Drinking Water and Township Water Supply and the Eighth Five-Year Plan." In 1994, solving rural drinking water difficulties was included in the "National 87 Poverty Alleviation Plan," further increasing investment through fiscal funds and work-for-relief channels. In the late 1990s, Gansu Province implemented the "121 Rainwater Collection Project," Guizhou Province the "Aspiration Project," Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region the "380 Drinking Water Relief Project," and Sichuan Province allocated special fiscal funds for the construction of drinking water projects for people and livestock. By the end of 1999, the rural drinking water difficulties for about 216 million people nationwide had been resolved.

(4) Since 2000, the Party Central Committee has put forward the important thought of the 'Three Represents' and the people-oriented Scientific Outlook on Development. Governments at all levels and relevant departments have adjusted their work approaches, intensifying efforts to address rural drinking water needs. In 2004, the history of severe shortages of drinking water in rural areas was basically ended, and rural drinking water work entered a new historical stage centered on ensuring drinking water safety.

" Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the state implemented rural drinking water projects such as drinking water relief, fluorine-arsenic water conversion, and emergency drought relief. The central government allocated 11.7 billion yuan in special national bond funds, with 10.5 billion yuan raised by local governments and residents themselves, solving the drinking water problem for 67.22 million rural residents.

3. Benefits of rural drinking water relief

July~August 2004, the Ministry of Water Resources organized over 100 experts from various departments and professional fields to evaluate the implementation of rural drinking water relief projects for 2000~2003. The evaluation covered seven aspects: preliminary work, construction, project management, operation management, efficiency, public satisfaction, and sustainability. A survey and analysis was conducted on 205 projects across 64 project counties in 23 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities), and 1,836 farming households were visited.

assessment results show that the rural drinking water relief project is progressing smoothly, and the tasks within the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" have been completed ahead of schedule. The preliminary work for the project is thorough and detailed, the construction management system is sound, supervision is strong, the project excellence rate exceeds 90%, the water supply project is well managed and operational, and farmers' satisfaction with the drinking water relief project reaches 98%.

Rural Drinking Water Relief Tenth Five-Year Plan was successfully implemented, basically ending the long-standing history of severe shortage of drinking water in rural China, truly benefiting farmers, and praised by the masses as a 'small project, great virtuous governance,' with remarkable benefits:

First, it has improved farmers' health standards and reduced the burden of medical expenses. The implementation of the drinking water relief project not only solved farmers' drinking water difficulties but also improved their sanitary conditions, reduced the incidence of waterborne infectious diseases, and enhanced the health of farmers, especially women and children. According to survey analysis, the per capita medical expenses in beneficiary areas have been reduced by about 40 yuan per year.

Second, it saves household water fetching labor and labor and liberates rural labor. According to surveys, after the water supply project is completed, an average of five households can reduce the number of workdays spent carrying water by 50 per year. The saved labor and time will be redirected to planting, aquaculture, and other production, which also increases opportunities for migrant work and business.

third, it promotes the development of the rural courtyard economy, which helps impoverished households escape poverty. Improved drinking water conditions have increased the number of livestock and poultry raised by families, providing a water source guarantee for courtyard cultivation and household agricultural and side product processing.

Fifth, strengthen the relationship between the Party and the masses, as well as between cadres and the masses, and improve the governance capacity of the Party and government. Residents in beneficiary areas refer to the drinking water relief project as the Party and government's "benevolent governance project" or "people-loving project"; Grassroots cadres call this the most direct and powerful manifestation of the "Three Represents" at the grassroots level. When the water supply was supplied by the drinking water relief project, the beneficiaries beat drums and gongs, composed poems and couplets, presented banners, wrote thank-you letters, and expressed their gratitude to the Party and government in various ways.

To clarify the current situation and problems of rural drinking water safety in China, from November 2004~June 2005, the Ministry of Water Resources, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Health organized a nationwide county-level survey and step-by-step re-evaluation of rural drinking water safety. A total of 2,674 county-level units were reported, and 30 provincial (autonomous region, municipality) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps provincial assessment reports were completed. Based on the nationwide review and evaluation, the "National Rural Drinking Water Safety Status Survey and Evaluation Report" was compiled.

According to local surveys, by the end of 2004, the rural population receiving decentralized water supply nationwide was 581.06 million, accounting for 62% of the rural population; The population receiving centralized water supply is 362.43 million (mainly beneficiaries of centralized water supply projects with a daily supply capacity of over 20m3 or more than 20 m³), accounting for 38% of the rural population.

the scale of centralized water supply in rural areas is generally small, with only 13% of the total rural population benefiting from centralized water supply exceeding 200m3/d; There are only 21,500 centralized water supply projects in towns and across townships, with 91% being village-level centralized water supply projects.

village-level centralized water supply project, mostly single-village water supply, The main water sources are groundwater and mountain stream water; Most are managed by contracted villagers, with both per-person and metered charges.

In centralized water supply projects, most water supply facilities are rudimentary, consisting only of water sources and pipelines, lacking water treatment facilities and water quality testing measures; Centralized water supply projects with water treatment facilities account for only about 8% of the total centralized water supply projects.

In addition, some centralized water supply projects have issues where their supply capacity exceeds actual water consumption. The reason is that some farmers have low income levels, use good water for drinking and cooking, and still use water for washing and raising livestock, which is previously free of charge.

Distributed water supply projects in rural China are mostly household building, household management, and household use, There is a widespread lack of water quality testing and monitoring.

decentralized water supply population, 67% supply shallow wells, mainly distributed in rural areas where shallow groundwater resources are easier to develop and utilize. Most water supply facilities are vacuum wells or tube wells, built in courtyards or close to farmers. Water is mainly drawn by manual pumps, pulleys, or miniature submersible electric pumps; 3% is rainwater collection, mainly distributed in hilly areas where water resources are difficult to develop or islands or other rural areas lacking fresh water resources, mainly consisting of eaves and hardened courtyard collection sites. In the north, water cellars are used for storage, while in the south, ponds are the main method. 9% is diversion springs, mainly distributed in hilly areas, with more in the south; 21% have no water supply facilities or are ineffective, directly using river water, stream water, pond water, mountain spring water, or drawing water from other villages, mainly distributed in rural hilly areas with abundant rainfall in southern hills.

(1) Evaluation Index System for Rural Drinking Water Safety and Health

The rural drinking water safety and hygiene evaluation index system is divided into two levels: safety and basic safety, consisting of four indicators: water quality, water quantity, convenience, and assurance rate. If any of the four indicators fall below the minimum basic safety value, it is considered unsafe drinking water.

According to survey and assessment results, by the end of 2004, the number of rural people with unsafe drinking water nationwide reached 322.8 million, accounting for 34% of the rural population. Among them, the population with unsafe water quality was 227.22 million, accounting for 70% of the total population with insecure drinking water; The population not meeting standards for water quantity, convenience, or guarantee rate was 95.58 million, accounting for 30% of the total population with insecure drinking water. Excessive drinking water quality has become a major issue facing rural drinking water safety in China.

2. Regarding the 11th Five-Year Plan for Rural Drinking Water Safety

adhere to the people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable scientific outlook on development, fully recognize the difficulty, complexity, and urgency of solving rural drinking water safety issues, and in accordance with the overall requirements of building a new socialist countryside, prioritize solving rural drinking water safety issues, accelerate the construction of rural drinking water safety projects, deepen reform of the rural water supply management system, strengthen water source protection, water quality monitoring, and socialized services, establish and improve the rural drinking water safety guarantee system, and ensure that rural residents have access to safe drinking water, Safeguard life and health, improve quality of life, and promote sustainable development of rural economic and social development.

1. Coordinate planning and highlight key points

the large number of rural drinking water insecurity in China requires a comprehensive approach, focusing on key areas, and step-by-step implementation based on actual conditions; In rural water supply project construction, it should be coordinated with new rural and small town construction plans, combining short-term and long-term needs, and comprehensively considering the water needs of livestock and poultry breeding as well as secondary and tertiary industries. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, focus on solving serious water quality issues affecting health such as rural residents' drinking high-fluorinated water, arsenic water, brackish water, polluted water, and microbial diseases, as well as severe water shortages in some areas; Priority is given to solving drinking water safety issues for ethnic groups with small populations, reservoir migrants, schistosomiasis-affected areas, villages in heavily diseased water-related areas, overseas Chinese farms, and rural schools.

solving rural drinking water safety issues, we must first protect drinking water sources, designate water source protection zones, strengthen protection of water sources, and prevent pollution and human damage to water supply sources; In particular, prevent water source pollution and damage caused by mining, industry, etc., and, following the policy of "who pollutes, who destroys, pays," ensure effective source control; At the same time, farmers are guided to apply fertilizers and pesticides scientifically, reduce non-point source pollution, strengthen the treatment of rural wastewater, garbage, and manure, and carry out comprehensive rural environmental sanitation improvement. In the construction and management of rural water supply projects, appropriate water purification measures should be taken based on the water source and other conditions; At the same time, water quality testing has been strengthened, and a water quality monitoring system has been established to ensure water supply safety.

rural water supply project construction, it is necessary to fully consider regional water resource conditions, adopt resource-saving construction methods, ensure proper water resource allocation, properly handle the relationship between domestic and production water use, prioritize ensuring domestic water demand, and focus on ensuring water source security rates in drought-scarce areas; Based on local natural, economic, social, and water resource conditions and the needs of village and town development, regional water supply project planning should be well done, strengthening reliability and sustainability evaluations, balancing water quality and quantity, and reasonably selecting water sources, project types, supply scale, and purification measures. Where conditions permit, it is advocated to develop moderately scale clustered centralized water supply and household supply, or to rely on existing water plants to develop tap water by extending their supply networks; In regions with high water production costs, it is recommended to supply drinking water and other domestic water quality; Farmers living scattered in hilly areas can adopt decentralized water supply.

improve the construction and management methods for rural drinking water projects, ensure project quality, implement management entities and responsibilities, improve fund utilization efficiency, and form a healthy operating mechanism. The rural drinking water safety project is mainly government-funded, attracting social participation and encouraging farmers to invest in labor and labor, but avoiding increased burdens on farmers. Strengthen preliminary work and strictly follow project review and approval procedures; For completed drinking water projects, systems for acceptance, follow-up investigation, and water quality monitoring should be established, and effective measures should be taken promptly to address issues. Solving rural drinking water safety issues is mainly the responsibility of local governments at all levels, with guidance and financial support from the central government; Relevant departments should divide responsibilities and cooperate closely. Health education should be strengthened, drinking water safety knowledge should be popularized, and water conservation should be vigorously advocated.

(3) Target Task

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