Shanghai plans to build a new water source for Chongming Island to improve tap water quality, the Shanghai Water Authority said.

The water source will benefit more than 600,000 people living on the island, who are currently dependant on the island's rivers.

The project is awaiting municipal government approval but the authority hopes to start work within the year.

The new source is on Dongfeng Xisha Island, an artificially reclaimed island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Chongming Island had four water plants as of 2005, when it had about 630,000 residents. The water plants then supplied 17.5 million tons of tap water a year.

So far the city has two water sources: a reservoir along the banks of Yangtze and an open water source upstream the Huangpu River. Huangpu now supplies 70 to 80 percent of the city's tap water.

(Shanghai Daily February 22, 2008)