HANGZHOU -- All rural residents in east China's Zhejiang Province are expected to have access to safe drinking water next year, the provincial water resources department said on Sunday.

The province has invested 1.79 billion yuan (US$261.4 million) so far this year to make safe drinking water available to 2.59 million rural residents, and it needed another 1.7 billion yuan for the remaining 2.3 million rural residents, a department spokesman said.

About 90 percent, up from 62 percent in 2002, of the province's rural residents totaling 21.7 million have access to safe drinking water, after the province invested 7.84 billion yuan for this purpose.

The move in Zhejiang is part of the country's plan to essentially solve the safety of drinking water in rural areas by 2015.

China has spent 61.6 billion yuan on water supply improvements in rural areas since 2000, according to the Ministry of Water Resources, and 160 million rural people got access to clean, safe drinking water as a result.

However, there were still more than 200 million rural residents with no access to safe drinking water. Water that was brackish or high in fluorine and arsenic threatened their health.

Rural areas also experienced a water shortage of about 30 billion cubic meters annually.