Water supply in the People's Republic of China

The problems of supplying the population of China with water are discussed. Of the 800 million living in villages, only about 300 million had safe water available. Of these 15 per cent had piped water. The remainder either had excess fluoride, brackish water, polluted water or inadequate supplies. The problems were exacerbated by the diversity of administrative units. There was much emphasis on local self-reliance which was preferred to a centralized authority. This applied to equipment, treatment processes, distribution and metering. Future plans include training centres, the production of instruction manuals and improved sanitation.