Water Unsafe for 300 Million Chinese

Dec. 23, 2004

The drinking water for 300 million Chinese is not safe to drink and cleaning it up is a top priority, Chinese government officials recently said.

Water Resources Minister Wang Schucheng said clean drinking water for all of China is the government's top priority. He said China plans to have safe drinking water for all residents by 2020, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"Currently, 300 million Chinese people are drinking unsafe water, among which 190 million are drinking water with harmful substances above set standards," Wang said Wednesday during a water resource conference.

About 70% of China's lakes and rivers are polluted, the government said.

Source: XNA