The Chinese Government will invest 5.5 billion yuan ($873 million) this year to clean up pollution in the country's rural areas, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on February 13.

The Central and local governments will invest further to complete the environmental clean-up of 60,000 villages across the country by 2015, according to the MOF.

Since 2008, the Chinese Government has allocated 8 billion yuan ($1.27 billion) in funds while local governments have invested another 9.7 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) in environmental rehabilitation projects in 16,300 villages. These projects have benefited 42.34 million people.