Shanghai plans to invest 50 billion yuan (US$6.04 billion) to build itself into an oriental city with a developed river system in five years in its efforts to make itself into a world-class metropolitan congenial to human habitat.
The city will first build a tourist and shopping system from Dingpu River, through the Xinjing River and Waihuanxi River, to the Suzhou River and the Huangpu River. By 2007, it will try to make it into a city full of southern Chinese river town flavor to greet the International Expo 2010.
The quality of the drinking water will be fundamentally improved. It will reach the standards of the western developed nations by 2010. It has planned to expand the Chenhang Reservoir and build a new reservoir in Luojing and increase the percentage of better-quality water drawn from the estuary of the Yangtze River.
(www.cenews.com.cn February 24, 2003)