During a four-day swing through Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region from July 19 to 22, Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying called for accelerated efforts to improve flood-control projects and build "safe, ecological and smart" dams to propel the region's rapid development, chinawater.com reported on Wednesday.

Li visited Lhasa and Xigaze, inspected river basin protection and management work along the Yarlung Zangbo River, Lhasa River and Nyangchu River, as well as urban flood control projects and irrigation systems in the region, where he called for efforts to "prioritize water conservation, balance spatial distribution, adopt systematic approaches and fully leverage both government and market forces," to promote water protection and management.

The minister asked various departments to coordinate high-quality development and high-level security based on Xizang's regional and hydrological conditions, accelerate urban flood control systems, major water conservancy projects, and modernization and upgrading of irrigation conditions in the autonomous region, Li said.

Li also highlighted the importance of disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, maximizing the flood control and peak-shaving functions of reservoirs in the upper reaches of the basin, accelerating river regulation and embankment upgrades, and improving the basin flood control engineering system there.

Li urged that meteorological satellites, rainfall radar systems, rain gauge and hydrological surveillance stations form a 'defense network', including real-time forecasting, early-warning drills to ensure the safety of people's lives and property in the region. He said that the managers of all reservoirs must adopt a new operation management matrix that maximizes benefits while ensuring safety.

Li also emphasized faster upgrades of canal networks, optimized water-delivery schedules and higher water-use efficiency there.

The minister also urged Xizang's water authorities to catalogue and protect the region's rich water-related cultural heritages, while emphasizing the need to strengthen research, protection, and utilization of water-related cultural heritage sites.

China's investment in water conservancy facilities rose 2.9 percent year on year to reach 198.81 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2025, official data showed on Thursday.

China started to build 6,034 new water conservancy projects in the first three months of this year, which will provide strong support and guarantee for the national flood control, water supply, food and ecological security, Xinhua News Agency reported.

China will accelerate the construction of a national water network, which is expected to be complete by 2035, forming a water security system that will align with the goals of the country's comprehensive socialist modernization, Li said earlier.