Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 16th. Title: Technology-driven, institutional escort, reform and innovation... There are some tricks to save water in cities!

Xinhua News Agency reporters Wei Hongyi, Enhao, Xiong Xuanang

The resurrection of springs in the North China Plain, the utilization of recycled water is becoming more efficient, and the urban waterfront scenery is beautiful... In recent years, water conservation has been achieved in many cities across the country. May 11 to 17, 2025 is the 34th National Urban Water Conservation Promotion Week. The reporter visited many places to explore urban water conservation tips.

In the Zero Carbon Industrial Park of Yijinhuoluo Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the water resource regeneration plant has been put into operation for more than half a year to make outstanding contributions to the park's water conservation.

"The photovoltaic wastewater in the park becomes high-quality recycled water after efficient precipitation, silicon removal, hardening, biochemical, ozone catalytic oxidation, etc., and is returned to the zero-carbon industrial park through reuse pipelines for reuse." Niu Yanpeng, executive director of Yijin Holoqi Pengyuan Water Supply Co., Ltd., told reporters that relevant technologies promote the recycling rate of photovoltaic wastewater to reach 95%.

Use of urban recycled water is an "open source" strategy for urban water conservation. The continuous improvement of the efficiency of recycled water utilization is behind the persistent technical research.

The reporter came to Shanghai. The Ministry of Water Resources and the Key Laboratory of Urban Water Supply and Water Environment Governance in the Yangtze River Delta, the experimental equipment operates efficiently. Since its establishment, the laboratory has undertaken more than 80 national and provincial scientific research projects in the direction of water supply, water conservation and water management.

" Focusing on all aspects of the entire process of the urban water circulation system's 'take-production-supply-use-return-discharge-control', we have made relevant technical breakthroughs in the field of urban comprehensive water conservation." Xu Bin, director of the laboratory, introduced that in terms of leakage control of water supply pipelines, relevant technologies have been successfully applied to the Suzhou Demonstration Zone, achieving a leakage rate from 27% to 3.61%.

At the 2025 National Water Conservancy Work Conference held at the beginning of the year, a relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Water Resources pointed out that an unconventional water technology standard system will be established and improved, and the utilization of unconventional water such as recycled water in 2025 will exceed 23 billion cubic meters.

Technology is the "pioneer" in improving urban water conservation efficiency, and the system is the "travel guide" to escort the steady and long-term urban water conservation.

The spring city of Jinan is gushing around Baotu Spring. Baotu Spring resurrected in 2003, and it has been more than 20 years since then. "The comprehensive measures such as source replenishment, mining control, rain increase, and water conservation are taken, and relying on the increasingly perfect system to increase groundwater replenishment, spring water is continuing to beautify the spring city." Pan Bingjiang, director of the Spring Water Protection Department of Jinan Urban and Rural Water Affairs Bureau, said.

Pan Bingjiang told reporters that the Jinan City Water Conservation Regulations and other documents promulgated in recent years provide institutional guarantees for Jinan to promote in-depth water conservation, control and protection of groundwater.

Institutional construction has been on the way to promote urban water conservation and loss reduction.

The Ministry of Water Resources and other departments jointly issued opinions on the comprehensive construction of a policy system for water conservation; Beijing improved the capital's water conservation joint meeting system and established a provincial water conservation standardization technical committee; Shaanxi Province Water Conservation Regulations will come into effect in March this year... All localities and departments are woven a denser and denser water conservation system network to make urban water conservation more targeted.

In March this year, the National Water Conservation Office announced the key points of national water conservation work in 2025, which clearly proposed to coordinate the formulation and establishment of specific implementation measures for the establishment and improvement of urban water conservation and loss reduction systems and policy systems, and strengthen the management of urban water conservation full-chain water conservation. According to the opinions on comprehensively building a policy system for water-saving systems, it is expected that by 2035, my country will form a policy system for water-saving systems that are compatible with the basic realization of socialist modernization.

Continuously improving urban water conservation results is also inseparable from institutional and mechanism innovation.

Recently, the largest cross-prefecture (city) regional water use rights transaction in Yunnan was officially signed - Qujing Chemabi Reservoir Engineering Construction Management Bureau and Kunming General Water Water Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with 25 million cubic meters of water and 1.25 million yuan. The transaction water volume can be transferred to Kunming through the Niulanjiang-Dianchi Water Replenishment Project.

In recent years, water use rights trading has been launched nationwide. According to certain rules, the government allocates water rights to users, allows water rights transactions between users, and uses market means to promote water resource conservation and optimize allocation. According to statistics, the annual trading water volume of the China Water Rights Exchange in 2024 was 1.37 billion cubic meters, an increase of 154.7% year-on-year.

Taking water use rights trading as an example, the innovation highlights of national water-saving mechanisms have frequently appeared: Handan, Hebei, has created a new model of contract water-saving management in all regions, and Guangxi has introduced the first provincial-level fiscal interest subsidy to support "water saving loan" policy... Through the government and the market's "two-hand efforts", "water resources" are transformed into "water assets", stimulating the endogenous driving force for water conservation in cities in various places.

Make efforts at multiple points and all parties work together; cities save water, and the future is promising.

"We will continue to promote the improvement of urban water saving and loss reduction system systems such as water budget management system, water price and water resource tax management system, contract water saving management system, recycled water utilization management system, and water-saving social management system, carry out the construction of a water-saving society with high quality, strengthen water-saving publicity and education, and mobilize the whole society to invest in water-saving practice." Zhao Chunhong, a second-level researcher at the National Water Conservation Office, said.