China on the move: Water cellars ease thirst

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Northwest China is an arid region, where getting enough water is a daily struggle. Wang Mangmang goes to a village in Shaanxi Province to see how a nationwide project is improving on a traditional method of water storage.

This is drinking water for many in the rural west. The people have been collecting rainwater for generations.

Fan Guilan, farmer of Dingbian County, Shaanxi, said, "We've been using this cellar for about thirty years. Now we have another cement cellar."

Getting water for the family is the major task for women like Fan Guilan. But it's hard with an annual rainfall of 300 millimeters.

CCTV reporter Wang Mangmang said, "In the poor and arid region of western China, the most difficult thing is for the people to get water. Children used to have only a handful of water to wash their face before they go to school. And mothers had to use only a small pot of water to cook a meal. Building cellars to collect rainwater has been a very long practice in western China. So the rainwater goes from here, and of course, the soil absorbs some of the water as it enters the cellar. Usually there's no lid, so you can imagine the hygiene conditions in cellars like this. The people here have been longing for clean and enough water for daily lives."

And now they have it, thanks to the Mothers Cellar Project. It was initiated by the All China Women's Federation and the China Women's Development Fund in 2000.

The husband enthusiastically describes the changes.

The new cellar is where the entire system ends. It provides enough water for the family and their livestock.