By the end of August, Guangzhou's Clean Drinking Water Project has been expanded to various neighborhoods in Haizhu, Tianhe and Yuexiu districts, bringing the number of residents with access to clean drinking water from 600,000 at the end of 2006 to 1.6 million at present. The number is expected to rise to 2.14 million by the end of this year as the project will have been expanded to Yuexiu District and Yuncun in Tianhe. The number will rise further to 3.7 million by 2010, as the project will have expanded to various other areas in Huangpu, Xuexiu and Tianhe Districts.
At present, the price of clean drinking water is the same as regular tap water, but may rise in the future. Even if the price is hiked, concessions will still be made as usual to low-income households.
In an effort to ensure water quality, the city's tap water company has set up 106 more water quality monitoring points throughout the city, bringing the total number of monitoring points to 143.
Officials with the tap water company said that clean drinking water is cleaner than regular tap water, but, as its quality may drop due to dirty water accumulation in the water hose and different people may have different physical resistances against germs, clean drinking water should not be drunk without first being boiled.
Editor: canton fair |