Saving and protecting water resources and promoting ecological protection were the themes of this year's China Water Week, which ended on Thursday.

China faces a daunting water situation, since its per capita fresh water resources are only about one-fourth of the world's average and its usable water resources per capita are only 900 cubic meters.

More than 400 cities have a deficiency of water and more than 110 of them face serious water shortages. What makes the situation even worse is the heavy pollution that has contaminated water resources; most of the cities have groundwater pollution to different degrees. The recent heavy metal pollution of rice in Hunan province was caused by polluted water.