China steps up investment in water conservancy over past five years

BEIJING -- China completed 5.68 trillion yuan (about $810 billion) in water conservancy investment during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), Vice Minister of Water Resources Chen Min said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference, Chen said that the country's annual investment in water conservancy projects has exceeded 1 trillion yuan for four consecutive years since 2022.

The country's effective irrigated farmland had reached 1.09 billion mu (about 72.67 million hectares) by the end of 2025, an increase of more than 53 million mu compared with the end of 2020, according to the press conference.

Meanwhile, access to tap water in rural areas continued to expand, with the national rural tap water coverage reaching 96 percent by the end of 2025.