CONVEYING ON THE OCEAN: Sailors on the Chinese amphibious dock landing ship Changbaishan work during an abeam replenishment from the supply ship Chaohu in the Gulf of Aden on October 14. The Changbaishan is part of the 18th convoy fleet sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy for escort missions in the Gulf of Aden(ZHANG YUELIN)

Food Waste

Senior officials have warned of the toll excessive food consumption is taking on the nation's scarce water and farm resources as they reveal almost 200 billion yuan ($32.6 billion) worth of food is discarded from Chinese dining tables every year.

The wasted food could potentially feed more than 200 million people, said Wu Zidan, Deputy Director of the State Administration of Grain, citing industry expert estimates.

In addition to the wasted food, roughly 35 billion kg of grain is wasted each year during storage, transportation and processing, Wu revealed on October 13 at a ceremony kicking off a one-week educational event aimed at raising people's awareness for saving food.

Food security is a major issue in China, one of the world's most heavily farmed countries, where problems including limited land and water resources as well as rising pollution put a strain on agriculture.

Civil Servant Exam

China's national-level government agencies, their affiliated public institutions and local branches will recruit over 22,000 civil servants in 2015, up from the more than 19,000 in 2014.

The 2015 public service exam for national-level governments will open to applications from October 15 to 24, the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Administration of Civil Service announced on October 13.

According to authorities, the 2015 public service selection will continue to favor candidates who have worked at grassroots levels.

Most positions in government agencies above provincial level require two years of community-level working experience. About 10 percent of all vacancies will be set aside for college graduates.

Water Plant

A water plant in Beijing announced that it is ready for water diverted from the country's south in a move to combat water scarcity in the capital.

The water plant, located in south Beijing, is the first major water plant built by the city in the downtown area for the project since 2000.

It is expected to provide 500,000 cubic meters of water a day to meet the demand of nearly 5 million residents in the capital, Zhang said.

Beijing has arranged five water plants to serve the water diversion project. Its water supply capacity has also increased to 3.72 million cubic meters a day.

The middle route of China's south-to-north water diversion project will see a massive 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per year pumped through canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou reservoir in central Hubei Province to the northern provinces of Henan and Hebei and to Beijing.