Residents of an isolated county in China's northwest are celebrating the arrival of safe, clean supplies. Cao Yin reports from Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

A woman washes her hands in clean tap water in Jiashi county, Kashgar prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. (WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY)

When he opened a tap at his home in Jiashi county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and saw clean water flow out, Abdukerim Kurban knew he could finally say farewell to his "bitter" life.

"At that moment, my family members couldn't wait to taste the tap water. Everything was so sweet," said the 48-year-old member of the Uygur ethnic group from Kashgar prefecture with a laugh, speaking at the end of May.

Now, whether boiling water for tea, rinsing vegetables or feeding our livestock, all it takes is a simple turn of the tap. Dirty water is just a memory for us

Maremsa Turhun, dressmaker in Jiashi, a county in Kashgar prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region

"I don't need to push a cart to carry water from afar anymore and I'll never have to worry about the cleanliness of the water."

For decades, water was more precious than gold for residents of Jiashi, which is located on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert where the harsh conditions mean it is one of the places most affected by water shortages and safety issues.

Those factors were a major obstacle to raising local living standards and lifting residents out of poverty.

After a yearlong water project was completed in the arid northwestern region at the end of May, Jiashi's 470,000 residents gained access to clean drinking water. The development also offered a solution to the problem of providing Xinjiang's poorest people with potable water.

"In recent years, we have spent lots of time and energy searching for sources of safe drinking water, and all our efforts have been worthwhile," Liu Hu, director of the county's water resources bureau, said.

As a local who experienced the days of drinking sour, salty puddle water or drawing water from wells, Liu said residents often got sick after drinking the liquid as it was often contaminated with pollutants or chemicals.

"The move from bitter puddle water to safe tap water was not an easy task, so we cherish the water project very much," the 46-year-old said. "Water safety is not only a must for people's health, but also a key to helping Jiashi attract investors and tourists."

Jia Zhonghu, deputy director of the standing committee of the Jiashi people's congress, shared Liu's opinion. He noted that the project has provided 500 jobs for local residents and helped improve the ecosystem and environment.

In addition to providing a guarantee of economic development, "the safe drinking water means a better life and a bright future for us", he said, adding that the project was a crucial step toward raising living standards and helping people escape poverty.

In June last year, the Ministry of Water Resources said it had been working hard to improve the quality of drinking water nationwide while eliminating poverty. It pledged that all poor families would be supplied with safe drinking water by the end of this year.

Maremsa Turhun, a dressmaker in Jiashi, said: "Now, whether boiling water for tea, rinsing vegetables or feeding our livestock, all it takes is a simple turn of the tap. Dirty water is just a memory for us."

A maintenance engineer at a water plant in Jiashi checks purification equipment. (ZHAO GE / XINHUA)

'Salty' memories

Even as a major trading hub in southern Xinjiang in ancient times, Jiashi was troubled by poor drinking water as a result of its arid climate, sparse rainfall and frequent earthquakes.

As one of the driest places in China, water was a rarity in the county, let alone potable water.

For decades, residents of the county, where over half the land is saline-alkali soil, had to get water from rain puddles, snow or glacial meltwater, or rivers.

Moreover, it could not be drunk for several days after collection until the dirt in it had settled, according to Jia.

"The puddle water tasted salty and bitter, and it contained many invisible pollutants that posed a threat to health, such as causing gastrointestinal illnesses," he said.

Maremsa, the dressmaker, recalled how she used to collect water for cooking and drinking from puddles.

"It was so salty that we didn't bother to add salt to our food," the 29-year-old said, adding that she often worried about the health of her two sons whenever she learned they had been drinking unfiltered puddle water.

Liu, from the water resources bureau, remembers that when he was a child some of his classmates had violent diarrhea or even died after drinking puddle water. "It wasn't unusual to see worms and frogs in the puddles, and the water we drank was also used for irrigating the farmland and feeding livestock," he said. "Everything could be found in that water, except cleanliness."

For a long time, the dirty water was a major reason for the county's impoverished status and also a stumbling block that prevented the residents from eradicating poverty, he added.

By the end of last year, some 25,000 poor people in Jiashi and Liangshan, Sichuan province, were still drinking unsafe water, and more than 60 percent of them were residents of Jiashi, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency in August.

Two staff members view the real-time status of machinery at the facility. (ZHAO GE / XINHUA)

Seeking safer sources

The "bitter days" and frequent illnesses made the people of Jiashi realize the importance of water safety, so they began looking for clean sources.

With policy support from the central government, Xinjiang launched several drinking water improvement initiatives in the 1990s, such as drilling wells and building water towers or stations, in a bid to rectify the unstable supply, Xinhua reported.

Jia said that in 1995 Jiashi's residents first started using pumps to extract groundwater.

"At least it looked much cleaner than the stuff in puddles," he said, adding that the quality was still substandard, mainly as a result of frequent earthquakes.

"For example, the groundwater could be drunk after its impurities had been filtered out, but the fluoride and sulfate content seriously exceeded national standards, which caused many people to lose hair and even teeth."

He noted that although problems came one after another, the people never stopped seeking safe, clean sources of water.

In 2013, the safety of drinking water in rural areas was highlighted as part of the central government's agenda and as an important part of the national poverty alleviation campaign.

Since then, efforts to locate untarnished sources and improve the quality to help impoverished people, including those in Jiashi, have intensified.

The county had planned to purify the local groundwater, but quickly abandoned the idea because of the high cost and fear of damage to the environment.

Later, it made the search for new water sources a top priority "because no good water sources means no safe drinking water", Liu said.

Employees check tanks of clean water at the plant. (ZHAO GE / XINHUA)

Farewell to the 'bitter life'

After nearly five years of research, a stable and clean water source was finally identified as meltwater from a glacier on Mount Muztagata, a peak about 200 kilometers southwest of Kashgar city, Liu said.

Channeling the water from the mountain was not an easy task because the project had to cross several counties, which meant many water plants and a long pipeline had to be constructed.

To ensure the people of Jiashi gained access to safe drinking water, several central government bodies, including the Ministry of Water Resources and the National Development and Reform Commission, provided financial aid for the project.

Meanwhile, local government departments combined several anti-poverty funds to promote construction, Xinhua reported.

According to Jia, more than 1.7 billion yuan (US$262 million) was provided in total, and in May last year work began to channel safe drinking water to Jiashi via a pipeline spanning three counties and with a total length of nearly 2,000 km.

The completion of the project meant that many households in Xinjiang finally had access to safe tap water, he added.

On the day the water reached Abdukerim's home, he rushed to turn on the tap and taste it, grinning from ear to ear.

"I sometimes envy my children because they can drink such safe and clean water while they are young, but I've waited for this day for almost 50 years," he said.

He always tells his children to recycle the water after washing their hands by using it to irrigate flowers and vegetable plots or to allow livestock to drink it.

"I experienced the difficult times of water shortages and I know this drinkable water has not come easily," he said.

He now drinks a cup of water when he gets up and before he goes to bed. He believes that safe drinking water is more important than making more money.

"Good health is priceless," he said.

Contact the writer at caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn