China's investment in water conservancy projects reached a record high of 142.7 billion yuan (20.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009, Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said Sunday.

The total spending more than doubled the investment of 65.54 billion yuan in 2008.

Among last year's spending, 63.7 billion yuan were from the central budget while the rest from provincial-level governments, Chen said.

The massive investment last year had pushed forward maintenance and upgrading of 6,124 reservoirs around the country, and helped nearly 61 million people gain access to safe drinking water, said Chen.

Between 2008 and 2009, the country added another 1.17 billion cubic meters in its water storing capacity and improved irrigation systems on 57.7 million mu (about 3.84 million hectares) of farmland, said Chen.

In 2009 alone, another 3 million kilowatts were added to the installed capacity of rural hydro power plants, bringing the total capacity to 54 million kw. The annual power output exceeded 150 billion kilowatt-hours.