China on track to cap water usage below 670 bln cubic meters by 2020

CHINA is set to achieve its target of keeping annual water consumption below 670 billion cubic meters by 2020, a senior official said Friday.

Annual water consumption has been capped below 610 billion cubic meters since 2016, Wei Shanzhong, vice minister of water resources, said at a press conference.

CHINA has long been worried about a water supply bottleneck that could jeopardize future economic growth, thus leading the government to adopt the strictest water management regulations.

The country has witnessed improved efficiency in water consumption over the years. CHINA's water consumption per 10,000 yuan (about 1,492 U.S. dollars) of gross domestic product plunged 30 percent in 2017 compared with 2012.

The amount of water consumed for 10,000 yuan of industrial value added plummeted 32.9 percent during the 2012-2017 period.

As CHINA has striven to develop farmland infrastructure, its irrigation efficiency index rose to 0.54 in 2017 from 0.51 in 2012. The index refers to the ratio of the water that is used by crops against the total irrigated water.

CHINA aims to build the whole country into a water-saving society by 2035.

Thanks to tougher efforts to crack down on polluters, the quality of water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs also improved, Wei said.

However, CHINA still faces serious scarcity of water resources. The country's per capita water resources' share lags far behind the world average.

CHINA is also a country with unbalanced water resources among its regions. North CHINA, which has a population of 168 million, accounts for only 4 percent of the country's total water resources.

Increasing water demand has resulted in groundwater overdraft and water level declines in the North CHINA Plain, Wei added.

He called on efforts to raise water use efficiency, promote water-saving irrigation techniques and limit the development of high water-consuming industries while pledging to continue to transfer fresh water from the country's south to its drought-prone north.

When asked if the government will ease strict controls over water protection amid the economic slowdown, Wei said environmental protection does not contradict with economic development and vowed to strengthen protection and management of water resources to promote green development.