Ministry of Water Resources： The target is to increase the penetration rate of tap water in rural areas to 92% by the end of this year.

Chinanews. com, March 14 th
Chen Mingzhong, director of the Rural Water Conservancy and Hydropower Department of the Ministry of Water Resources, said on the 14th that by the end of this year, the penetration rate of tap water in rural areas will increase by two percentage points to 92%, and the proportion of rural population covered by large-scale water supply projects will increase by three percentage points to 63%, greatly improving the level of rural water supply security.

On March 14th, the State Council Press Office held a press conference. At the meeting, a reporter asked: Rural drinking water safety is related to people’s livelihood and well-being. What progress has the Ministry of Water Resources made in this regard? And what key work will be carried out next? What new goals will be achieved?

Chen Mingzhong said that the Ministry of Water Resources, together with all localities and relevant departments, will fully implement the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and vigorously promote the construction of rural water supply projects. By the end of 2023, the penetration rate of tap water in rural areas will reach 90%, and 90% of farmers will drink tap water. The proportion of rural population covered by large-scale water supply projects will reach 60%, which means that the scale of water supply will reach tens of millions of people. There are several major advances:

First, in terms of ensuring the drinking water safety of rural people, we won the tough battle of rural drinking water safety and poverty alleviation, continued to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation and effectively connected with rural revitalization. By the end of 2020, the drinking water safety problem of 17.1 million poor people was completely solved, and the problem of drinking high-fluorine water and brackish water by 10.95 million rural people was properly solved. Continue to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation, and fully guarantee the drinking water safety of rural people in the process of coping with natural disasters such as drought in the Yangtze River Basin in 2022.

The second is to continue to promote the construction of rural water supply projects. In the past 10 years, the accumulated investment in project construction has reached 555.6 billion yuan, which has solved the drinking water safety problem of 130 million rural residents and consolidated and improved the security level of 510 million rural population. By the end of 2023, 5.63 million rural water supply projects have been built nationwide, and the water supply service population has reached 870 million.

Third, actively explore innovative financing models. At the same time of financial investment at all levels, we have guided local governments to make efforts to raise funds through multiple channels to carry out rural water supply projects. For example, in the past three years, a total of 304.9 billion yuan has been invested in rural water supply projects, of which local government special bonds, financial credit and social capital account for nearly 80%.

Fourth, establish and improve the management system, implement the "three responsibilities" and "three systems" for rural drinking water safety, comprehensively set the price and charge for rural centralized water supply projects, and the central government arranges maintenance subsidy funds to support local governments to strengthen the maintenance of rural water supply projects.

Chen Mingzhong said that rural drinking water safety guarantee is an important symbol of consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. In the next step, the Ministry of Water Resources will guide all localities to comprehensively promote the high-quality development of rural water supply.

The first is planning guidance. Organize all localities to prepare high-quality development plans for rural water supply.

Second, taking the county as a unit, the whole county system implements the "3+1" standardized construction and management and protection mode. "3" means giving priority to urban-rural integration, large-scale centralized water supply construction, and implementing standardized construction and transformation of small water supply projects according to local conditions, so as to maximize the urban-rural water supply homology, the same network, the same quality, the same supervision and the same service. "1" is the management and protection mode to realize the unified management and full coverage of professional management in the county.

The third is to strengthen water quality assurance. In-depth implementation of the special action to improve the water quality of rural water supply, strengthen the protection of rural drinking water sources, improve the facilities and equipment for purification and disinfection, strengthen self-inspection and inspection of water quality, and ensure the safety of rural water supply.

The fourth is to firmly hold the bottom line. Explore the establishment of an emergency security system for rural water supply, improve the mechanism for rapid discovery and emergency response of rural water supply problems, and ensure that problems found are solved in time and dynamically cleared. Target By the end of this year, the penetration rate of tap water will increase by two percentage points to 92%, and the proportion of rural population covered by large-scale water supply projects will increase by three percentage points to 63%, greatly improving the level of rural water supply security.