Nation's huge strides on water resources hailed

Li also highlighted achievements that China has made in optimizing the allocation of water resources, enhancing environmental conservation and addressing water supply difficulties in rural areas.

Supported by a large number of major water diversion projects, the annual supply capacity of water resource management facilities across the country has exceeded 890 billion cubic meters, he said.

Thanks to a series of government support measures to beef up the rural water supply, including those involving investment and personnel training, 87 percent of the country's rural population had access to tap water as of the end of last year, up 11 percentage points from 2015, Li noted.

"According to data from the United Nations children's fund and the World Health Organization, China's rural water supply is leading among developing countries," the minister said.

The achievements were made because the Chinese government always regards the people's aspirations to live a better life as its goal and spares no effort to solve water-related problems that people are most concerned about, he emphasized.

By comprehensively implementing the new development philosophy, China has striven to properly handle the relationship between development and protection, and to promote the realization of harmonious coexistence between humans and water, he said.

Li also underscored China's great efforts to ramp up international cooperation on water resource management and the significant achievements the country has made in doing so.

Such efforts have helped to improve people's livelihoods in BRI countries, he said. For example, the Lancang-Mekong Sweet Spring Project, which China launched in 2020, has addressed the difficulties that around 7,000 people in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have faced in getting safe drinking water.