To assist the rural people in the dry mountains of Gansu province, an award-winning program was started in 2000.
A leader of a rural women’s group, Zheng Jin Xia, says, “Because the village was so poor and there was no water, hygiene was very bad. However, after we got the water cellars (underground storage that captures rainwater), we now wash our clothes and bathe.”
Funding for the Water Cellars for Mothers program came from private donations from individuals and from companies in eastern cities—twenty million yuan was raised by the women.
This project has provided water for one million people. The local government provided additional funding and the rural villagers contributed labor to build the system.
The Chinese national media covered the water shortage in the western areas, so more people learned about the living conditions there. This encouraged support of the project.
The “Water Cellars for Mothers” project is part of a vast undertaking to provide safe water for three hundred million people in the rural areas of China with a goal to achieve this by 2020.
In four years, the government invested millions of yuan toward rural water projects. In the future, a larger investment will be needed.
China’s water challenges are similar to other modernizing societies. Rapid economic development and population growth are demanding more water resources than ever before.
Next time you read or hear someone say that China is secretive and doing little to help the rural people, remember this. Since the start of the program, about 900,000 water cellars have been built
Return to China’s Water Challenge – Part 2
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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