SHANGHAI, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government plans to extend its drinking water monitoring network this year to include more rural areas, said an official with the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday.

    The government aims to equip 25 percent of the country's counties, about 750 in number, with drinking water monitoring stations this year, said Bai Huqun, deputy director of the bureau of disease prevention and control of the MOH.

    The government would increase investment in water quality monitoring and establish a nationwide monitoring network, said Bai at the ongoing meeting of the United Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Board on water and sanitation held in East China's Shanghai Municipality.

    China's drinking water quality monitoring network in rural areas covered 477 counties in 26 provinces by 2005.

    Bai told the meeting that the government would strengthen water monitoring by making regular evaluations of drinking water quality and would investigate into diseases caused by drinking water in rural areas.

    More than 300 million people in China have no access to safe and clean drinking water, most of them in comparatively poor rural areas.

    The government has pledged to provide safe and clean drinking water for 160 million rural people by 2010, and for all the rural people by 2015.

    The country has invested a total of 33.8 billion yuan (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the past six years, and nearly 100 million rural people have been ensured with clean and safe drinking water supply, said Li Daixin with the Ministry of Water Resources.

    It would cost nearly 120 billion yuan to guarantee a clean and safe drinking water supply for all 300 million people, according to Li's estimation of 400 yuan per person.