Beijing to spend billions on water cleanup

The Chinese government has announced it will spend billions of dollars over the next five years to secure clean supplies of drinking water and rehabilitate contaminated water sources, the South China Morning Post reported. The exact budget was not disclosed, though it was estimated to be at least US$130 billion, half of which will go to cleanup efforts on the Huai, Hai and Liao rivers and Tai, Chao and Dianchi lakes, which provide half the mainland's water supply, said Zheng Binghui, director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences' Institute of Water Environment. Zheng said recent studies suggest that more than 450 drinking water sources in key national environmental protection cities, a number six times higher than the official figure, could not meet the standards. Hunan, Anhui , Jiangsu and Shanxi provinces had the worst water safety standards.