Conserving and Utilizing Water Resources

The distribution of China's water resources is spatially and temporally imbalanced, and China's per capita water resources are only 28% of the global average, making it a significant restricting factor in socioeconomic development. Quickly achieving a fundamental transformation in water resource utilization and improving water use efficiency is a vital part of our comprehensive conservation strategy.

In recent years, we have accelerated implementation of the National Water Conservation Campaign and reduction in both the volume and intensity of water consumption, improved national systems for water consumption quotas and monitoring of water resources, and kept total national water consumption basically stable. With just 6% of the world's fresh water, China feeds nearly 20% of the world's population and contributes over 18% of global economic output.

On the new journey ahead, we must continue to prioritize water conservation and uphold the principle of managing cities, land, human resources, and production based on available water resources. We will introduce sound water-saving systems and policies to strictly manage and carefully use water resources. We will continuously promote conservation and intensive use of water resources and encourage a green transformation in all aspects of our economic and social development.

Specifically, we need to thoroughly implement the National Water Conservation Campaign and promote water-saving throughout society, with the focus on improving water conservation in both agriculture and industry, reducing the discharge of wastewater from industrial sources, and promoting the conservation and loss reduction of water in urban areas. We will establish mandatory limits on the use of water resources, manage evaluations of water resources and supervision of water intake permission, accelerate the construction of a system for monitoring and measuring water intake, and enhance assessments of water resource management. We will improve supporting policies for water conservation, speed up the initial allocation of water-use rights, vigorously promote water-saving management contracting, and guide financial capital and non-governmental investment toward water conservation.