Guangxi's water resources department recently released the directory of its most important drinking water sources, with Bama Yao autonomous county's Suolue Reservoir included in the list.

The Suolue Reservoir is located at the source of Lingqi River, 33 kilometers from Bama county in Hechi. Its water-collecting area stands at 117 square kilometers and the total storage capacity can reach 36.69 million square meters.

In July 2013, Guangxi Party committee and government planned to develop Bama into one of three international tourist destinations in the region. According to the plan, the population of Bama will be 200,000 and the county's tourist numbers will reach 12 million by 2030. The daily maximum water supply amount will thus reach 110,000 cubic meters.

Currently, the county's daily water supply capacity can only reach 25,000 cubic meters, causing increasingly sharp conflict between water supply and demand.

To solve the problem, Bama started looking for a new drinking water source and finally chose the Suolue Reservoir.

"The next step for Bama is to take measures to strengthen management and protection of local important drinking water sources and carry out construction in the areas to reach the standard of the plan," a government official said.

Edited by Owen Fishwick