Eating lunch with river water

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A public welfare worker who recently uploaded a group of photos on his Tencent Weibo showing pupils eating lunch accompanied by drinking water directly sourced from a river, explained that this was a local custom, nandu.com reported on July 3.

A girl in Dongjiang Primary School in the town of Lijiang, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, pours river water from a tap to have with lunch. [Photo/Zhang Yunming]

A girl in Dongjiang Primary School in the town of Lijiang, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, pours river water from a tap to have with lunch. [Photo/Zhang Yunming]

The group of photos showed pupils queuing for lunch, and a girl adding river water to a bowl of rice from a water tap in Dongjiang Primary School in the town of Lijiang, Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Since first being published online on June 29, these photos have been reposted by lots of media. Some netizens expressed their sympathy to those pupils, while others questioned whether related local government departments turned a blind eye to such situations.

Netizen "Lijiang A Ying" asked: "There should be subsidies for nutritious meals in rural schools. Don't they have to eat like this everyday?"

Zhang Yunming, the public welfare worker who posted those photos, told a reporter that the school carried out the nutritious lunch project, but pupils who added river water to their meals did so because of their living habits.

The headmaster of the school surnamed Hai echoed Zhang's words. Hai told reporters that the school provide boiled water and soup to pupils, but pupils were unwilling to drink it because of their homegrown habit and the hot weather.

Officials from the local educational department also explained the government had already guaranteed meals and drinking water for pupils, although they still carry on the habit of drinking cold water.

Officials also claimed that investigations on the use of social donations towards providing nutritious meals is already been under investigation following concerns being raised by the public.

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