Ensuring the safety of water supply in cities is important to the improvement of people's living and health standards, a Chinese senior official said at a press conferee held in Beijing on Tuesday.

Vice Minister of Construction (MOC) Qiu Baoxing said that authorities at different levels have done a lot of work in ensuring the safety of urban water supply in recent years.

First, the MOC mapped out the Quality Standards for Urban Piped Water, which came into effect on June 1, 2005. This document provides for stricter standards for piped water quality, with the number of quality indicators increasing to 101 from the original 35 prescribed in the Hygienic Standards for Domestic Drinking Water promulgated in 1985.

The standards have also tightened the supervision and management of urban piped water.

Second, the ministry has continued to adhere to the urban-rural balanced development concept that guides the supply of water to urbanized areas, water saving and wastewater treatment in recent years.

Third, the reform of the urban water supply and wastewater treatment sectors has been pushed forward. Reforms include opening up the market, strengthening supervision, and optimizing services.

Fourth, wastewater treatment facilities have been established.

In addition, an emergency water supply system was put in place by the MOC last year to ensure an uninterrupted supply of water.

China has so far set up 36 water inspection stations in medium-sized and large cities. The stations give regular updates on water quality.

"At present, the quality of piped water is much improved in the 36 cities," Qiu said. "According to statistics, water turbidity in these cities decreased to 0.66 NTU in 2004 from 0.94 NTU in 2000."

NTUs -- nephelometric turbidity units -- are used to measure the level of suspended matter including organic and silt particles in drinking water. High quality water has a low NTU reading.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon June 8, 2005)