A villa complex built illegally in a water conservation district has been exposed in Nanyang, a prefecture-level city in Henan province.

Built under the guise of a "rare plants garden construction project," the complex featuring 17 villas is located on the banks of Yahe Reservoir in the city's Nanzhao county.

With a water storage capacity of 1.3 billion cubic meters, the reservoir represents a first-grade water supply conservation area and is a major drinking water source for millions of residents in Nanyang.

China's regulations forbid construction projects unrelated to water conservation to be built in water conservation districts.

Zhou, director of the reservoir's administrative department, told a reporter from chinanews.com that the project had been launched despite opposition from his department.

Our department has no enforcement power to stop such a project, according to Zhou.

"The only thing we can do is report the case to the government of Nanzhao county and the municipal water department of Nanyang," Zhou added.

An official at the county's land management department had advised the reservoir's administrative agency not to block the construction project.

Yin Chaodong, director of the regional planning bureau of Nanzhao, said he knew nothing about the villa project.

An anonymous insider blamed the boom in the county's irregular construction projects on the "ambiguous attitudes" of local policymakers.