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Shanghai  plans to draw water from a new source after criticism of the quality of the city's tap water, a report said yesterday.

The project would draw water from the Qingcaosha area in the northern part of the mouth of the Yangtze River near Shanghai, the state-run Wen Hui Daily reported. Shanghai's main water source is the heavily polluted Huangpu River that runs through the city.

Local officials were reportedly furious and embarrassed when a Taiwanese reporter asked Premier Wen Jiabao  about Shanghai's water quality during a news conference after the annual National People's Congress session in Beijing in March.

'Shanghai's water is simply undrinkable and what's more, it's yellow,' said Chou Yo-fei, of the Taiwan Human Rights News.

The new water source was protected from pollution and salinity, and a planned reservoir would be able to hold enough water to last 50 days, the report said, without providing figures.

Besides the reservoir, the project will include sluice gates and treatment facilities, it said, without giving  a completion date.

Officials could not be reached for comment yesterday because of the Labour Day holiday.

In Shanghai, like the rest of the mainland, tap water is not considered safe to drink without boiling. But critics say Shanghai's goal to be a 'world city' requires it to do more to improve water quality.

Officials vowed residents would be able to drink directly from the tap by 2010, when the city hosts the World Expo. The problem is not treatment, but old pipes that carry water to residents, experts said.

The water quality around the new intake point met the mainland's Class II, or 'moderate' rating, though some measurements were Class I or 'good', the report said.

But experts warned that the Yangtze, the mainland's longest river, was heavily polluted. The Shanghai Oceanic Administration said  that the seawater around the mouth  was among the most polluted in the  country because of factories dumping waste upriver.

Lead and cadmium concentrations  have increased since 2004, though copper and mercury have declined. The total area at the river's mouth  affected by pollution has also increased, partly due to dumping.



Stung by tap water criticism, Shanghai turns to mouth of Yangtze