Rural drinking water contaminated with hazardous substances has aroused the concern of Chinese lawmakers, especially those from western regions where water shortages are reported to be grave.
People have a fundamental right to a safe water supply, said Yuan Hanmin, a deputy to the National People's Congress.
But he acknowledged that residents in some rural areas have long had access only to water sources polluted with arsenic, industrial chemicals and other substances exceeding state standards.
"It is crucial to provide farmers with 'care-free water' as soon as possible," said Yuan, also vice president of the academy of agricultural and forestry sciences in southwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
The central and local governments have appropriated funding to build water supply projects in rural areas over the past 25 years. In Ningxia, these projects have improved water supply to 947,000 local farmers, according to NPC deputy Tao Yuan, also director of Ningxia's regional finance department.
But, according to an official with the Ministry of Water Resources, more than 300 million rural residents still do not have access to safe drinking water, and 190 million others have to drink water containing excessive hazardous substances.
To address the problem, state authorities have worked out a plan to reduce the number of rural residents who do not access to clean, safe water by one third by 2010, and they hope to guarantee safe water to the 300 million rural residents by 2020.