Chinanews, Beijing, March 27 - According to the statistics of the Ministry of Water Resources, more than 40% of the rural population in China are haunted by unsafe drinking water.

 

High-fluoridated water has caused various diseases to nearly 30 million people, and another 33 million are faced with the same danger; besides, there are some 2 million people living in the drainage of fatal high-arsenic water. Brackish water and snail fever are another two major water crises in China, troubling 38 million and 11 million people respectively.

 

There are quite a number of rivers and lakes in Hubei Province, but snail fever has caused a great water crisis here. It is estimated that more than 2.55 million people in Hubei are threatened by the disease.

 

Hubei provincial government is planning to invest some 70 million yuan this year to solve the problem of snail fever in 2007.