Unilever, the global consumer goods giant, will start selling water purifiers in China, the National Business Daily quoted a senior executive at the company as saying on Wednesday.

Zeng Xiwen, vice-president of Unilever Greater China, said that the company will start trial sales of the water purifiers in Nanjing this month. It will then expand sales channels by placing the products in large home appliance malls like Suning and Gome, and also other supermarkets and stores, the paper said.

To get access to safe drinking water, an increasing number of people in China are drinking bottled water or using water purifiers.

Recent studies and media reports have shown that a large number of toxic organic pollutants have been discovered in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, a major source of drinking water, in recent years. More than 170 types of persistent organic pollutants have been detected in the waters near the Three Gorges Dam, including 18 species covered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency's priority pollutants.

Less than 5 percent of Chinese families have water purifiers, which indicates a potential market value of 300 billion yuan ($47.72 billion) in the next five years, a report released by the China Market Report Center said in February.