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BEIJING: Beijing authorities are replacing hundreds of kilometres of old and rusting water pipes to ensure tap water at the 2008 Olympics sites is safe to drink, state media reported on Friday.
"Tap water in the Olympic gyms and the athletes' village will be safe to drink," Jiao Zhizhong, head of the Beijing Water Authority, was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.
"Beijing's old water pipes are being replaced at a rate of 300 kilometres (190 miles) a year," he said.
The paper said the Olympics would place "enormous pressure on the already parched city," which is in the grip of a long drought.
The Beijing Water Works Group, responsible for ensuring the city's water supply, has earmarked US$256 million to upgrade the city's water system to guarantee sufficient supplies during the games next August, and a further US$22 million to repair leaky water pipes, it said.
"New water-pipe systems have already been installed in the Olympic zone and surrounding areas to ensure the provision of safe drinking water," the paper said.
State media said recently that there was only enough water in Beijing to adequately supply a little over 14 million people in 2005, but at the end of last year the city had some 15 million permanent residents and four million migrant workers.
A project to divert water from the Yangtze River basin will provide Beijing with an additional 400 million cubic metres of water a year, the paper quoted sources with the Beijing Water Works Group as saying.
The city currently uses more than one billion cubic metres of water a year, it said. - AFP
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