China will advance the construction of 150 new major water conservancy projects, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Monday.
The projects are expected to increase the storage capacity for flood control by 9 billion cubic meters and the annual water supply capacity by 42 billion cubic meters, said Su Wei, an official with the NDRC at a briefing.
The total investment in the projects is estimated to reach 1.29 trillion yuan (184.38 billion U.S. dollars), which is expected to drive investment of about 6.6 trillion yuan and offer about 800,000 job positions annually on average, Su said.
So far, some 52.8 billion yuan of the central government's budget investment had been allocated for the construction of the major projects, according to Su.
Water projects under construction had all resumed work and production by the end of April and are currently in smooth progress, said the Ministry of Water Resources.
