Minister discusses China's progress on water purification, protection

China has managed to provide 310 million rural residents with safe drinking water since 2016, Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying said as the 9th World Water Forum opened in Dakar, capital of Senegal, on Monday.

Currently, 84 percent of the country's rural residents enjoy tap water, compared with 36 percent in 2005, Li also said, addressing a ministerial-level meeting held on the sidelines of the forum via video link.

"We have brought about a historic resolution to rural residents' difficulties in getting drinking water, which have lingered for generations," he noted.

Titled "Water Security for Peace and Development", the forum is the first of its kind in sub- Saharan Africa.

Li also noted significant progress in the development of agricultural irrigation. To date, the system has effectively benefited over 69 million hectares of farmland, on which 75 percent of the country's grain and 90 percent of commercial crops are planted.

The system has contributed greatly to help ensure the country's food security, he added.

China promotes water conservation as a national strategy and also imposes rigid constraints on water consumption, he said. The country manages to support one-fifth of the world's population with only 6 percent of the fresh water on the planet.