North China's Hebei Province has planned to build 16 natural reserves in four years at its north mountainous area, where lies the major water resources for Beijing and Tianjin.

The 16 natural reserves, with an area of 264,000 hectares, include Weichang natural forest reserves, the wetland natural reserve, and natural forests for water conservation of Guanting Reservoir, according to the local government.

Local officials said the reserves will be able to protect forest ecosystem and wild animals in the region, such as leopards, macaques, ocelots, foxes and snakes.

China has stepped up efforts in water conservation due to increasingly serious water shortage.

Early reports said that the water shortage in Beijing, China's capital, could reach crisis point in 2010, when the population is expected to top 17 million, at least three million more than its resources can feed.

In 2003, a general program on protection of ecosystem in the fountainhead areas of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers in northwest China's Qinghai Province was launched, aiming to upgrade the environment quality in that region.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2006)