BEIJING, Jan. 11 -- China's water conservancy investment reached a record high in 2023, official data shows.

Nearly 1.2 trillion yuan (about 168.81 billion U.S. dollars) was invested in the sector, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The investment was used to support projects related to river basin flood control, the national water network, hydrological infrastructure, intelligent water conservancy, and the recovery of river and lake ecological environments.

China began 27,900 new water conservancy projects in 2023, up 11.5 percent year on year. And water conservancy construction projects provided approximately 2.74 million jobs last year, an increase of 8.9 percent from 2022.