With national attention focused on the drinking water crisis in the city of Harbin, the People's Daily devoted an entire page on Friday to the issue of drinking water safety and water security, a problem for 300 million rural residents.

Life has returned to normal after several days of water supply problems for Harbin residents, who can now turn on the taps again and see crystal clear water. But it will be years before 300 million farmers in the countryside get access to clean drinking water free of fluorine, arsenic and other poisonous industrial elements.

As a nation badly short of water resources, the lack of drinking water has haunted rural residents for years.

Statistics indicate that 9.8 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) from State treasury bonds has been put into projects to quench the thirst of farmers since 2000. Including money from local governments and self-raised funds, a total of 18 billion yuan (US$2.21 billion) has been spent completing 1.8 million projects nationwide to provide drinking water for 57 million farmers.

Drinking water safety has become a major problem, with local economic development failing to place enough emphasis on the treatment of sewage and waste industrial water.

Waste water directly discharged from industrial enterprises and untreated sewage from homes have seriously polluted many drinking water sources in rural areas.

Statistics from the Ministry of Water Resources indicate that more than 89 million rural people are under threat from drinking water contaminated by industrial pollutants.

The number of rural people whose health is affected by drinking water containing high levels of fluorine or arsenic is more than 54 million, according to statistics.

More than 30 million farmers have to drink bitter and salty water every day, the statistics say.

For 96 million rural residents, the situation is even worse. They still have difficulty in getting enough drinking water to sustain their daily lives.

While we are concerned with the water supply cut in Harbin caused by an explosion at a chemical plant in neighbouring Jilin Province, we should not forget the 300 million rural brothers and sisters who long for safe drinking water.

We should provide rural residents with enough safe drinking water. If this problem remains unresolved, it would be shameful for us to talk about a harmonious society.

For leaders of local governments, high economic growth rates do not mean anything unless the quality of their residents' lives have indeed improved. Of course, adequate and safe drinking water is the very basis of this improvement.

President Hu Jintao has called, time and again, on governments at various levels to do whatever they can to solve drinking water problems for rural residents.

In September, the State Council issued a notice urging local governments to drive home the importance of providing safe drinking water for rural people. The notice also requires local governments to set up a responsibility system for leaders to push forward the work.

If there is no fuel, we can give up motor vehicles and walk, but if there is no water what shall we do? We have no choice but to die.

With population growth and industrialization, water is, and will be, an issue that deserves high attention for both urban and rural areas.

The efficient use of water, the treatment of waste water from industrial enterprises and sewage from homes, the careful management of rivers and the protection of water sources of any kind all these are vital to the fate of the entire Chinese nation.

(China Daily November 28, 2005)