Officials and representatives pour water at the ceremony. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

The Water Cellar for Mothers project set up by China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF) has helped relieve a total of 2.9 million impoverished people from water problems in central and western China, according to the latest data.

The figures were released by the foundation at a conference marking the 15th anniversary of the project in Beijing on Thursday. The foundation began the project 15 years ago and continues to help people in regions that naturally suffer from shortages of water—with a focus on women—to shake off poverty caused by the problem.

Serious water shortage leads to much hardship, reduces agricultural production, and affects the education of local farmers. In those affected areas, gynecological disease and infant death rates are significantly higher, said officials. Women carry an especially heavier burden faced with such conditions.

Specifically, the project collects donations to build long-lasting concrete water cellars that can be used during dry spells, and to irrigate crops.

Data shows that over the past 15 years, the project spent a total of 896 million yuan (U.S.$ 138 million) in constructing 139,400 water cellars and 1,698 small-size, intensive water supply projects in 25 provinces and areas nationwide.

It also solved the problem of providing drinking water for 543 primary and middle schools in rural areas.

Building water storage tanks to collect rainwater in areas hit by water shortage is the most economical and practical way to improve conditions for farmers, according to experts. A water cellar of 36 cubic meters can collect 50 to 80 cubic meters of rainwater. This is enough to provide water for a family of three to five people for a whole year. With two water cellars, they can irrigate an acre of plantation. Many other problems in these people's lives can also be solved by having more water.

After the implementation of the project, women have been liberated from the heavy work of fetching and carrying. Data shows that thanks to the water cellars, the average time women spend in fetching water each time has fallen from 45.5 minutes to 11.3 minutes, while the centralized water supply projects help them save more time, from 13 minutes to mere seconds.

After the project was upgraded, the beneficiaries' living standards have improved dramatically. For example, since the project helped solved the drinking water problem in Songchuan Village in Qingshui County in northwest China's Gansu Province in 2003, the village has started to develop a courtyard economy, growing orchards and breeding livestock, raising the villagers' per capita income from 960 yuan (U.S.$ 148) in 2002 to more than 10,000 yuan (U.S.$ 1,540) in 2014.

The project has also brought economic and social benefits to impoverished women and children over the past 15 years. Thanks to the construction of water cellars, the economy and societies in impoverished areas have developed as well. Gynecological disease has fallen from 90 percent to 20 percent in some places.

The project has also raised women's body consciousness and ability for self-development and risk resistance, leading them onto the economic field and helping them become a major force in economic construction.

Over the past 15 years, the project has gone through four strategic development phases, including the approval and implementation phase to provide safe drinking water for villagers; the expansion phase to develop farming, breeding, health and landscaping to improve impoverished women's lives; the upgrading phase to extend the project to schools; and the transition phase to focus on local sustainable development and water resource protection, and to decrease the influence of environmental and water pollution on people's health. Currently the most recent phase is still ongoing.

Qin Guoying, secretary-general of CWDF, said at the conference that in the next five years, the project will focus on raising the public's consciousness in water resource protection, adopting new technologies, and carrying out international cooperation with African countries.

Li Taotao, brand representative of the project from Yanchi County in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, told her stories during the event. Before 2005, she had to go far away from home to fetch water and the whole family washed their face with only one basin of water. After a water cellar was constructed in her home, the family has had no worries about water anymore and their living conditions have also improved. Now the girl has become a college student. During the meeting, she and her mother expressed their thanks to the project.

At the conference, 15 individuals were honored as so-called "Water Angels" and 32 individuals as "Water Guardians" for their contributions. Fifteen enterprises including Perfect (China) were honored as Loyal Companions, while actor Yu Hewei was named as an ambassador.

The Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory Asteroid Foundation presented an international asteroid certificate, stating there is an asteroid now named after Water Cellar for Mothers.

Representatives of beneficiaries of the Water Cellar for Mothers project speak at the event. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Li Taotao (L), representative of the project from Yanchi County in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, tells her story during the event. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

The Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory Asteroid Foundation presents an international asteroid certificate to the Water Cellar for Mothers project. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Child donors speak at the event. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

A photographer tells the story behind a photo. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Enterprises receive awards at the event. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

(Women of China)