Beijing, host of next year's Summer Olympic Games, has intensified cooperation with neighboring Hebei Province to protect water resources in its upper streams and ensure adequate supplies.

      The municipal government has earmarked 100 million yuan (US$12.8 million) to prevent pollution and foster water saving in Zhangjiakou and Chengde, two cities in Hebei Province whose water feeds two major Beijing drinking sources, Miyun and Guanting reservoirs.

      Twenty percent of the fund is already in place to finance seven initiatives, including a pollution-prevention project at the source of the Heihe River in Chicheng County of Zhangjiakou.

      With the Olympics drawing near, water quality in Hebei Province is vital to Beijing as 53 percent of Miyun Reservoir, the largest storage facility in north China, comes from Chicheng County.

      This means that a third of Beijing's drinking water comes from the county.

      Chicheng has pumped more than 60 million cubic meters of water to Beijing in four years, said sources with the Hebei Provincial Water Resources Bureau.

      Chicheng has also stepped up efforts to curb 1,800 square kilometers of soil erosion and closed a number of polluting plants and mines to minimize water pollution.

      Meanwhile, farmers in three counties upstream from the Miyun Reservoir are being compensated to switch from rice to corn and other less water-intensive crops to bolster the capital's water supplies, according to a deal between the governments of Hebei Province and Beijing.