Before the 1980s, farmers in the suburban areas of Beijing basically relied on large shallow wells （in over 80% of the rural areas）, rivers and springs to get their drinking water. As shallow surface water is prone to be contaminated by garbage and animal manure during rainy seasons, the incidence rate of enteritis, dysentery and other water-borne diseases is very high in summer and autumn in rural areas. In the 1960s and 1970s, people living in the outskirts of Beijing suffered from repeated massive outbreaks of intestinal infectious diseases. In addition, due to water shortage, many farmers living in mountainous areas had to climb over mountains to faraway places to get water by carrying it in buckets, vehicles or on donkey back. Water shortage and unsanitary domestic water are posing a grave threat to the health of farmers and hampering the development of rural economy.

Water supply reform in Beijing Municipality began in 1984 and we have seen gradually improvement of drinking water quality in the suburbs of Beijing thanks to our unremitting efforts. In 2000, tap water supply in rural areas achieved a penetration rate of 98%, ranking second in the country. In 2002, we accomplished an aggregate number of 1,631 water supply reform projects, helping 1.1135 million farmers access drinking water up to national water hygiene standards. Between 2003 and 2007, we completed a series of water purification projects for removal of fluorine, arsenics, ferro-manganese, etc., and constructed up-to-scale cross-village water treatment plants, all of which have disinfection facilities installed and equipped with laboratories for the realization of water quality monitoring for rural areas. In 2008, we took a further step and established a rural water supply automatic remote monitoring system.

We have so far built a total of 3,952 rural water supply systems of varying scales, installed 1,778 sets of water disinfection apparatus, making water disinfection rate in rural areas of Beijing soar up to nearly 50% from a mere 2.7% in the 1980s and 1990s. We have now established 118 water plant laboratories, and achieved annual water quality monitoring coverage rate of 50%. All these measures have benefited some 4,500 villages, 1.2 million households and 3 million people.

Water supply reform, implemented in Beijing for 23 years, has brought enormous changes to the rural areas. First, clean drinking water has helped elevate farmers’ health conditions. In 2001, the year right after Beijing achieved a penetration rate of 98 % tap water supply in rural areas, the incidence rate of dysentery in rural areas dropped from 818.32 cases per 100,000 people in 1985 to 87.4 cases per 100,000 people. In addition, farming and aquaculture have grown by leaps and bounds with convenient water supply. Rapid economic growth in rural areas lures investors, which has led farmers on to the journey of affluence.