That would mean China could have a per-capita share of water resource of 1,760 cubic meters (61,600 cubic feet), the Xinhua news agency cited the Ministry of Construction as saying.

China's current water resource is already considered low, 2,200 cubic meters per person on average.

The country supports 21 percent of the world's population with just seven percent of the global water resources, according to official statistics.

The population is expected to stabilize after the 2030s. Water resources will still be scarce after that but may not be as bad.

Water is also unevenly distributed in China with more than 360 million rural Chinese lacking safe drinking water. Cities are also facing chronic shortages, raising serious health concerns, senior officials have warned.

The northern part of the country, with only six percent of the country's total water resources, supports one third of its population, Xinhua said.

The per-capita water resource of Tianjin municipality in north China, for example, is only one 10,000th of that of Tibet in southwest China.

Worsening water pollution is also adding difficulties to the water supply, Xinhua quoted Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing as saying.

Part of the problem lies in China's unchecked economic growth, which has led to not just severe water pollution but imbalances in the ecosystem.

Qiu also warned of the danger of excessive exploitation of underground water, which has resulted in subsidence of land in many cities.

He cited Beijing as an example, saying the capital city has sustained a land subsidence of nearly one meter (3.3 feet) a year since the early 1950s.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.