A state media report said on Monday that China will invest 29.65 billion yuan (2.8 billion euros) this year to improve dams and boost water quality.

A senior official from the Ministry of Water Resources told Xinhua that about 3.2 billion yuan (305 million euros) will be used to reinforce reservoir banks. According to Reuters, an official with the same ministry had earlier said that thousands of dams are like "time bombs" that could flood nearby villages in the event that they burst their banks.

More than 6 billion yuan (573 million euros) of the total investment will go towards solving the proverbial problem of unsafe drinking water in rural areas that affects up to 300 million people in China.

Drinking water in the countryside has been polluted by industrial waste and sewage discharge as well as the heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers.

The report said money has also been set aside towards a plan to transfer water from southern China to the northern provinces that experience water shortage.

Reuters reports that of China's 85,000 reservoirs, 30,000 have serious problems. In Guizhou province, 30 million yuan (2.9 million euros) will be used to repair 100 reservoirs. The province has built 1,928 dams since 1949, but by the end of the 1990s, 918 of them or about 48 percent, had already become dangerous.