An additional 29.5 million rural residents in China were given access to safe drinking water in 2006, pushing the total to 559 million, the Ministry of Water Resources said on Monday.

The central government has pledged an investment of 32 billion yuan during the 2006-2010 period to ensure that 160 million rural residents, mainly those in the western and middle regions, have clean water to drink.

In 2006, the country invested 10.8 billion yuan in the project, mainly for water-cleaning equipment and well-digging, which was around half the total money invested during the 2000-2005 period, the ministry said.

By the end of 2005, unclean drinking water, mainly polluted by industrial waste, urban sewage, pesticides and fertilizers, had threatened the health of 300 million Chinese rural residents, 37.5 percent of the country's 800 million rural residents, according to ministry statistics.

Contaminated underground water, bitter salty water and water polluted by excessive fluorin and arsenic have brought serious risks to rural residents, the ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2007)