BEIJING - China invested a record 334.1 billion yuan ($52.82 billion) in water conservation this year, the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) said Tuesday.

The central government alone invested more than 100 billion yuan in water conservation projects, up 70.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the MWR.

The funding of conservation efforts has progressed, as now China allocates 10 percent of income from land transfers to farmland irrigation and water conservancy construction, said Chen Lei, minister of the MWR.

Part of the investment has been used to ensure safe drinking water for more than 63 million rural residents, Chen said.

Meanwhile, the country has also battled three subsequent large-scale droughts this year hitting north China's winter wheat zone, the mid-lower reaches of Yangtze River and the southwestern areas.

The government managed to provide drinking water to 20.55 million drought-stricken residents and ensure irrigation of 320 million mu (21.33 million hectare) of farmland in the drought-stricken regions, Chen said.

The country's ability to resist floods also upgraded this year, with no large dam or reservoir reporting a breach or burst, he said.

Disaster-triggered damage plummeted 50 to 80 percent from a year ago, while flood-caused casualties hit their lowest levels since 1949, he added.

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