Hosting the Olympic Games posed no threat to Beijing's water supply, a vice minister revealed, with all water coming from the capital.

      "There has been no Olympic water diverted from neighboring Hebei Province, and valuable deep underground water has not been used," said Vice Minister of Water Resources Hu Siyi.

      Gao Erkun, the ministry's water resource department director, said China boasted a strict management system over the use of water, and licenses were needed to use deep aquifers.

      "Up to now, Beijing has not been permitted to exploit the deep underground water," said Gao, who also added the city "has no plan to introduce Hebei's water for the Games."

      Hu said the deep underground water was important strategic storage and was "generally not to be exploited." The Olympic water should first come from surface water, and then from reservoirs, he said.

      "If shortages still existed, shallow underground water would be used as complementary resources because its storage could be constantly refreshed by rainfall," he said.

      The capital has adopted conservation efforts to guarantee Olympic water storage. The city consumed 4.04 billion cubic meters of water in 2000, falling to 3.4 billion cubic meters in 2006.