One hundred and sixty million Chinese in rural areas will get clean and safe drinking water in the next five years, and all rural Chinese people will be provided with safe potable water to be funded by the central government by 2015, Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng told Xinhua on Monday.

Currently, Wang said, 312 million Chinese villages are still facing water shortages or unsafe water contaminated by fluorine, arsenic, high levels of salt or other organic or industrial pollutants.

Although the budget had not been firmly set, the minister said the country plans to invest 40 billion yuan over the next 10 years on safe water supply projects.

Wang said China is likely to far exceed its UN Millennium Development Goal which was to reduce by only half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015.

Worldwide, one in every six people is without safe potable water and in China there are more than 50 diseases caused and spread by unsafe water, said Zhai Haohui, Vice Minister of Water Resources.

The best way to reduce diseases and improve health among rural villagers is to provide them with safe drinking water and good sanitation, he said.