New filtering technology has allowed water from the sandy Yellow River to bring life to west China's arid farms, it was announced Thursday, paving the way for the system's use to become widespread.

The Gansu Provincial Bureau of Science and Technology said technology developed by Ruisheng-Yamit High-Tech Agriculture Co. Ltd. has tackled the problem of using the Yellow River's water for drip irrigation, a method which allows water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, and which is therefore commonly used where water is scarce.

The local authority's appraisement makes way for the roll-out of the technology and makes way for China's sandy ground water to be used for drip irrigation, which otherwise should use clean underground water.

Zhang Jiewu, chairman of the board of Ruisheng-Yamit, a Sino-Israeli joint venture, said the company obtained a patent for the technology from the State Intellectual Property Office earlier this year.

He said farmers in west China had until now been restricted to using underground water for drip irrigation because solids contained in the region's unusually sandy ground water can block the pipeline. However, by installing sand-separating settings to drip-lines, the ground water can be filtered before free-flowing to the pipelines.

The company has seen the facility applied on 35,000 hectares of farmland in Gansu Province as well as Ningxia Hui, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions since the product was launched last year.

Zhang said the company has received orders from 11 Chinese provinces and regions for the patented drip-line facilities.

An official with the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Science and Technology said that many irrigation facilities by the river's bank in the northwestern region are left unused because of the sand problem.

Ruisheng-Yamit is a joint venture between the Gansu Yasheng Group and Israel Yamit Ltd. of Filtration and Water Treatment.