Beijing, December 18:

China has devised a cost-effective solar energy bathing sch-eme for its population in the countryside where statistics show that 200 million out of China’s 800 million rural people bathe only once a month.

Now energy experts have devised a bathing scheme aimed at introducing China’s rural population to the joys of a hot bath. Tens of millions of Chinese population were found to bathe only once every quarter or every six months, leading to a high number of diseases, which resulted from bad hygiene.

The problem is acute in Chinese villages where some farmers and herdsmen do not bathe for a whole lifetime because of poverty and lack of facilities.

Solar energy is being promoted in China as an alternative to inefficient and polluting gas stoves. The stoves rely on the burning of low-quality briquette that contains sulfur dioxide and other poisonous elements.

For a fee of one yuan (about 12.5 US cents) per head and 1.5 yuan (about 18.75 cents) in winter, more than 1,000 villagers can bathe in a village bathhouse.