How Beijing and NGOs are combating China's growing water crisis

In 2009, Yunnan was hit by one of the worst droughts in 60 years. Rural farmers in the southwestern province were dealt a crushing blow as agriculture and farming came to a standstill.

Heinigou, a small mountainous community in the province also known as Dinosaur Valley Township for its dinosaur fossils, was particularly hard hit. Water enables its population, who live below the poverty line, to grow crops, earn money and educate their children.

When the drought hit, the village not only lacked the basic water supply infrastructure to cope, but also the money and technical know-how to furnish themselves with the necessary supplies.

Children in the village had their education cut short because they had to work to make up for the lost income at home. Without basic sanitation infrastructure, water sources were often contaminated and waterborne diseases were rampant.

In March last year, Green Cross International, a Geneva-based environmental and humanitarian non-profit organisation founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, offered a helping hand. Working with Singaporean non-profit organisation Lien Aid and the Yunnan Environment Development Institute, Green Cross built new infrastructure for the secure supply of clean water and sanitation.

"Using pipes, we captured the water of a spring that was running down the mountain and supplied households and the local boarding school with safe water. We built showers, taps and latrines," says Marie-Laure Vercambre, director of Green Cross' Water for Life and Peace programme.