The experts recommended the new strategies include three aspects: limiting the use of water; stopping pollution at its source; and expanding the use of non-traditional water resources, said Qian Yi, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislative body.

The city's rate of processing sewage is 46 percent, the highest in the country but lagging behind developed countries with rates of up to 80 percent, according to Qian, also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Britain's experience in commercial operation and administration of water resources will be instrumental in Beijing's efforts to make better use of water resources, said British water experts Martin Griffiths and Cedo Maksimovic.

Over the past 25 years, structural changes have been made in water use and regulation in Britain, which has helped solve the same urban water supply problems that challenge Beijing, they added.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2002)