my country's water efficiency and benefits continue to improve (new data and new insights)
The total water consumption in 2023 will remain at around 600 billion cubic meters
Beijing, March 24th (Reporter Wang Hao) Reporters recently learned from the Ministry of Water Resources: The water conservancy department has fully implemented the water control idea of "water conservation priority, spatial balance, systematic governance, and two-hand effort" to promote the transformation of water use methods to conservation and intensification. . Preliminary statistics show that my country's total water consumption will remain at about 600 billion cubic meters in 2023. This means that since 2014, when my country's GDP has nearly doubled, the total water consumption has generally stabilized within 610 billion cubic meters; compared with 2014, the water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP in 2023, Water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value decreased by 41.7% and 55.1% respectively. The changes and changes in the national water "bill" reflect the continuous improvement of water efficiency and benefits, and confirm the continuous improvement of development quality and benefits.
Behind the overall stability of total water consumption is agricultural water conservation and efficiency improvement. Agricultural water accounts for more than 60% of the country's total water consumption. The water conservancy department has vigorously developed agricultural water-saving irrigation and improved irrigation area management capabilities. The area of comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices has reached 900 million acres. As an important indicator reflecting farmland irrigation efficiency, the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water has increased from 0.530 in 2014 to 0.576 in 2023. The average water consumption per mu of cultivated land for irrigation dropped from 402 cubic meters in 2014 to 364 cubic meters in 2022. Despite successive bumper grain harvests, the total amount of agricultural irrigation water used across the country has achieved zero growth.
Behind the overall stability of total water consumption is industrial water conservation and emission reduction. At present, my country has established a dual control indicator system for total water consumption and intensity covering administrative regions at the provincial, municipal and county levels. Water use units above designated size in the Yellow River Basin, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and Yangtze River Economic Zone have achieved full coverage of planned water use management. 21,000 water-saving industrial enterprises will be built. In 2023, the water reuse rate for industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide will reach over 93%.
Behind the overall stability of total water consumption is urban water conservation and loss reduction. At present, 1,763 counties and 145 water-saving cities have been built to meet water-saving social standards, and the construction of water-saving universities has been comprehensively promoted. A total of 714 contract water-saving management projects have been promoted and implemented, attracting 9.5 billion yuan of social capital. In 2023, the leakage rate of urban public water supply pipe networks will drop to less than 10%.
The water conservancy department will adhere to and implement the water conservation priority policy, thoroughly implement the national water conservation action, continue to focus on agriculture, industry, urban and other fields as water conservation, strengthen regional major strategic water conservation actions, improve the ability to conserve and intensively utilize water resources, and accelerate the progress of water conservation. Construction of a water-saving society.
(People's Daily)