Abstract：The backwardness of rural water supply system is one of the bottlenecks that restrict the high quality development of social economy. In this paper, a mountainous town in Pearl River Delta，including 246 economic communities assigned to 22 administrative villages was taken as representative. By means of on-site inspection，residents interviews, facilities inspection, and water release, the type of
water sources, water treatment facilities,pipe networks, as well as water supply system management were thoroughly investigated within the communities. Results showed that the main water sources were listed in a descending order: mountain spring water (34.2% , counts by economic communities, similarly here in after)，river water(32.5%)，mixed water(31.3%)，underground water(2.0%).Water treatment
technologies adopted were listed in a descending order: full traditional water purification technology(FT-WPT)(32.5%)，reservoirs(30.1%),FTWPT and distributed wells(27.2% ) ， reservoir equipped withfilter (5.7%)， FTWPT andrescrvoirs(4.1%)，wells(0.4%).PVC shallow buried was mostly used compared to standards. But it was susceptible to collision, pressure and sunlight, which brings potential
risks to water quality. The satisfaction rates on water quality were 71.1% ( daily ) and 55.7% ( rainstorm)，respectively. Complaints on water flow or pressure reached as high as 55.3%. There was a gap
between water metering and payment, which reflected from that 73.2% of the communities equipped water meter for each household, compared to that only 32.5% payed for the water. This paper summarized
the problems existing in the water supply system, solutions were also prospected in smart perspectives.
2024, Vol. 37 
