The State Council Information Office held a press conference at 10 a.m. on January 9, 2026 (Friday), inviting Vice Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources Chen Min, Chief Planner of the Ministry of Water Resources Wu Wenqing, Director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Water Resources Zhang Xiangwei, and Director of the Department of Rural Water Conservancy and Hydropower Ni Wenjin to introduce the progress of accelerating the construction of the national water network and answer reporters' questions.

Chen Min:Dear journalist friends, good morning! Thank you all for your long-term concern and support for water conservancy work.

2025 is the final year of the “14th Five-Year Plan”. With the strong support of relevant ministries and commissions, the Ministry of Water Resources has completed 9,420 rural water supply projects, improving water supply security for 134 million rural people, and the national rural tap water penetration rate has reached 96%.

Jimu News:Rural water supply security is an important part of rural revitalization. What measures has the Ministry of Water Resources taken to ensure rural water supply? What other work should be considered in the next step regarding the high-quality development of rural water supply?

Ni Wenjin:Rural water supply is related to the livelihood and well-being of hundreds of millions of people. In 2025, the Ministry of Water Resources, together with relevant departments and localities, will comprehensively implement the "3+1" standardized construction and management model of urban and rural water supply integration, large-scale centralized water supply, standardization of small-scale water supply, and professional unified management in counties. The penetration rate of tap water in rural areas nationwide will reach 96%, the proportion of rural population covered by large-scale water supply projects will reach 71%, and the proportion of unified management in counties will reach 72%. There are mainly three aspects of work:

Highlight planning guidance and improve project layout

Guide all localities to comprehensively accelerate the implementation of provincial high-quality rural water supply development plans, prioritize the integration of urban and rural water supply in suburban and rural areas, promote large-scale water supply in villages with relatively concentrated populations in plains and hills, and promote the standardized construction and transformation of small-scale water supply projects in accordance with local conditions in pastoral areas, mountainous areas and remote areas that cannot be covered by integrated urban and rural water supply and large-scale water supply. Together with the Ministry of Finance, we have supported local governments in implementing small-scale water diversion projects for two consecutive years through water conservancy development funds, and guided local governments to use multiple channels to raise funds for rural water supply construction and management. By the end of 2025, the number of small water supply projects will be reduced by 990,000 compared with 2024, establishing a project pattern with large-scale water supply as the mainstay and small water supply as the supplement.

Innovate management system to ensure long-term operation

Based on the integration of water supply resources in counties, on the basis of local practice, we have summarized and formed three county unified management models: urban and rural integrated management, unified management by professional institutions, and entrusting third-party agencies to manage. We have clarified the main body of unified management through franchising, authorized operation, and purchase of services to ensure full coverage of services. I have just introduced that by the end of 2025, the proportion of unified management in counties will reach 72%. In these counties, users' services such as installation, repair, and payment have achieved deep online and offline integration, and the level of professionalization and standardization of rural water supply management and protection has been further improved. For example, Zhejiang has focused on high-quality water supply needs in remote mountainous areas and islands. In the past three years, it has completed the renovation of 8,828 single-village water stations, built a digital application platform for "Zhejiang's delicious water" that connects provinces, cities and counties at three levels, built a number of "unattended water stations" and "smart water stations", established a "real-time response, 10-minute order dispatch, and 2-hour delivery" problem-handling mechanism, and realized digital intelligence empowered unified management across the region.

Strengthen water quality assurance and improve detection capabilities

Cooperate with relevant departments to carry out in-depth special actions to improve the quality of rural water supply and accelerate the improvement of the water quality assurance system from source to faucet. Since 2024, 2.2 billion yuan of water conservancy development funds have been arranged together with the Ministry of Finance to further promote rural centralized water supply projects to be equipped with purification and disinfection facilities and equipment as required or to take necessary purification and disinfection measures. The National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention issued a notice to further strengthen the testing and monitoring of water quality in rural water supply projects, and cooperated with the ecological environment department to basically complete the demarcation of drinking water source protection zones and the establishment of signboards at the national township level. The rate of rural water supply quality compliance continued to increase.

In the next step, we will further promote the implementation of the "3+1" standardized construction and management and protection model of rural water supply, and strive to achieve a national rural tap water penetration rate of 97% in 2026, a large-scale water supply project covering 73% of the rural population, and a county unified management rate of 77%.

Information source: Water supply and drinking water saving