According to the Ministry of Water Resources of China, the total water consumption of the whole country maintained at around 600 billion cubic meters in 2023. That means, despite nearly doubling the country's GDP since 2014, the total water consumption has remained generally stable, staying below 610 billion cubic meters.
How can China make it? Let’s dig it out.
China has set four principles in water resources management. They are “water-saving first, balanced usage, systematic management, and both-hands approach.” (“节水优先、空间均衡、系统治理、两手发力”)
The first principle -- “water-saving first” is easy to understand.
The second -- “balanced usage”-- needs to be explained. There are more water resources in the southern part of China than in the northern part. To balance the water usage with population and economic development, China takes two kinds of measures.
One is the planning of city, land, population and industries should be according to water resources. Chinese President Xi Jinping used a very vivid metaphor “有多少汤泡多少馍,”which means “the amount of buns to be put into soup should be proportional to the amount of soup.” “Mutton soup with steamed bun”(羊肉泡馍”) is a famous dish in Shaanxi province where Xi lived for several years when he was young. All Chinese love this dish know that the proportion of bun and soup is very important to make a tasty flavor. So he used this metaphor on the balanced use of water.
The other kind of measures is building a trans-regional water conservancy network to divert water from the south to the north, from area lack of water to area rich of water. About 70% of water in Beijing is from the south and almost all the water in Tianjin is from the south.
The third, “systematic management” is in line with China’s philosophy of systematic management in every working aspect.
The fourth -- “both hands approach” -- means government and market playing roles at the same time, and the two are organically unified, complementary, coordinated and promoting each other. In China, there is a saying when the government leaders want to do two important things at the same time. That is “两手抓,两手都要硬.” It means “To do both things at the same time and neither will take a back seat.”
These are the four principles in China’s water resources consumption and management. Now let’s check the major sectors.
First, the agriculture sector. Agriculture accounts for over 60% of the total water consumption in China. Behind the overall stability of total water consumption is the water-saving and efficiency-improving measures in agriculture. The water resources department has vigorously promoted water-saving irrigation in agriculture, improved irrigation area management capabilities, and implemented comprehensive reforms of agricultural water pricing, covering an area of 900 million mu (each mu is about 1/6 acre). The irrigation water use efficiency coefficient, an important indicator reflecting the efficiency of irrigation in farmland, has increased from 0.530 in 2014 to 0.576 in 2023. The average water consumption for irrigation per mu of arable land has decreased from 402 cubic meters in 2014 to 364 cubic meters in 2022. So despite consecutive years of increasing harvests, the total agricultural irrigation water consumption in the country has achieved zero growth.
Second, the industry sector. China has established a dual-control indicator system for both total water consumption and intensity, covering provincial, municipal, and county-level administrative regions. In the top three economic regions -- Yellow River Basin, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the Yangtze River Economic Belt -- planned water use has been fully implemented. The number of water-saving industrial enterprises reached 21,000. By 2023, the water reuse rate in scale industrial enterprises nationwide reached over 93%.
The last but not the least, the non-agriculture, non-industrial, social life sector. Water-saving and reducing water leakage in urban areas are priorities. Currently, there are 1,763 socially standardized water-saving counties and 145 water-saving cities. The construction of water-saving universities has been comprehensively promoted. A total of 714 contract water-saving management projects have been implemented, attracting a total of 9.5 billion RMB in social capital. By 2023, the urban public water supply network leakage rate was reduced to less than 10%.
Compared to 2014, the water consumption per 10,000 RMB of GDP and per 10,000 RMB of industrial value added decreased by 41.7% and 55.1%, respectively, by 2023. The changes and constants in the national water consumption 'bill' reflect the continuous improvement of water efficiency and effectiveness.
I think these are the main reasons why China, a country with only 6% of world freshwater resources, can guarantee water supply for 18% of world population, while sustaining 18% of world economy. ###
Thank you so much for sharing this interesting piece.