China News Service, June 17th. The National Development and Reform Commission held a June press conference today. Spokesperson Meng Wei revealed at the press conference that currently, my country has built 123 desalination projects, and the total desalination capacity across the country is about 1.65 million tons per day.
At the press conference, the reporter asked: Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Desalination Utilization Development Action Plan (2021-2025)".
What is the current situation of seawater desalination and utilization in my country?
How arduous is it to complete the main objectives and tasks specified in the Plan for 2025?
For coastal counties (cities, districts) with relatively underdeveloped economies, are there any incentives for cultivating the desalination industry chain?
Meng Wei said that water resources are extremely precious to the high-quality development of my country's economy.
Among the 55 coastal cities above the prefecture level in 11 coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China, 51 are water-scarce cities, and all 12 island counties are water-scarce counties.
It can be said that water resources have become a bottleneck restricting the economic and social development of coastal areas.
Therefore, desalination, as an important high-quality incremental water source, is of great significance to alleviating the shortage of water resources in coastal areas and ensuring water security.
At present, my country has completed 123 desalination projects, and the total desalination capacity of the country is about 1.65 million tons per day.
The "Action Plan for the Development of Seawater Desalination Utilization" proposes that by 2025, the total scale of seawater desalination across the country will reach more than 2.9 million tons per day, and the new scale of seawater desalination will exceed 1.25 million tons per day.
The formulation of this goal takes into account the prominent contradiction between the supply and demand of water resources in coastal areas and the large demand for seawater desalination. my country has strong design and construction capabilities for large-scale seawater desalination projects, the industrial chain is relatively complete, and large-scale utilization has good cost-effectiveness. And other factors.
Meng Wei pointed out that it should also be noted that the overall scale of seawater desalination in my country and the scale of individual projects are relatively small, the technical level of key core equipment still lags behind the international advanced level, and there are difficulties and problems such as non-convergence of network access standards and insufficient incentive policies.
To this end, the "Action Plan" proposes relevant measures to improve the policy system.
Among them, with regard to incentive measures, the Action Plan encourages the use of government purchases of services or subsidies to promote the use of desalinated water for urban public municipal water supply.
In terms of taxes and fees, we encourage co-generation of hydropower to "replenish water with electricity", and implement preferential policies such as exemption of demand (capacity) electricity fees and corporate income tax credits.
In terms of finance, the banking financial institutions are encouraged to increase credit support.
In terms of investment, social capital is encouraged to actively participate in diversified methods such as PPP.
Meng Wei said that the follow-up will also promote the implementation of the document, especially the implementation of incentive measures to ensure effective results.