To the Development and Reform Commissions, Departments (Bureaus) of Water Resources (Water Affairs), Competent Authorities for Industry and Information Technology, Departments (Commissions, Administrative Committees, Bureaus) of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and Departments (Bureaus, Commissions) of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (Agriculture and Animal Husbandry) of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:
With the deepening advancement of building a water-conserving society, the scale of the water-conservation industry—which primarily encompasses the manufacturing of water-saving products and equipment, as well as water-saving management and consulting services—has continued to expand, becoming an important component of new-quality productive forces and the green economy.Accelerating the development of the water-saving industry is of great significance for fostering water-saving lifestyles and production methods, improving the level of water conservation and intensive utilization, and promoting a comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. To fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, thoroughly put into practice the water management philosophy of “prioritizing water conservation, achieving spatial balance, implementing systematic governance, and leveraging both government and market forces,” and to drive improvements in water resource utilization efficiency through the development of the water-saving industry, the following opinions are put forward.
I. General Requirements
Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will implement a comprehensive conservation strategy, ensure the coordinated efforts of government intervention and market mechanisms, promote effective alignment between supply and demand in the water-saving industry market, and foster the effective supply of technological innovations and products and equipment. Through the high-quality development of the water-saving industry, we will drive the continuous improvement of water resource conservation and intensive utilization.By 2027, the scale of the water-saving industry will reach one trillion yuan, and a group of “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” small giant enterprises will be cultivated. A development pattern for the water-saving industry will be preliminarily established, featuring enterprises as the main body, the market as the guide, innovation as the driving force, and the integration of industry, academia, research, and application. By 2035, a group of leading enterprises with annual revenues of 10 billion yuan will be cultivated; water-saving technologies, processes, products, equipment manufacturing, and management services will reach world-class levels; and water-saving production and lifestyles will be fully established.
II. Stimulating the Development Momentum of the Water-Saving Industry
(1) Implement a system of strict water resource constraints. Strengthen the management of total water consumption and intensity control indicators at the provincial, municipal, and county levels; reinforce the government’s responsibility for water conservation; and leverage the primary role of water users in water conservation.In regions with severe water scarcity or groundwater over-exploitation, the construction of water-intensive industrial projects must be strictly controlled; new water-intensive industrial projects that do not comply with national industrial policies shall be prohibited, and existing ones must be phased out within a specified timeframe. Establish scientific and reasonable water-saving evaluation standards; new, renovated, and expanded projects must meet these standards. Improve the water resources monitoring system and strictly regulate water abstraction and use. Establish a multi-departmental joint law enforcement mechanism to rigorously investigate and punish illegal water abstraction and use.
(2) Strengthen water conservation management in key sectors. Promote full coverage of planned water use management for industrial and service sector entities nationwide that exceed annual water consumption thresholds. Strengthen supervision of key water-consuming entities and conduct water efficiency benchmarking and compliance assessments in key industries. Strictly control water use in high-water-consuming service industries such as bathhouses, car washes, laundries, and hotels, and actively promote water recycling and cascading use.Actively develop water-saving irrigation and promote the construction of water-saving irrigation facilities, which must comply with water-saving technical standards. Address water losses in public water supply networks and actively advance the development and utilization of non-conventional water sources. Promote water-saving renovations in public institutions and facilities; new, renovated, or expanded public buildings must use water-saving products that meet national standards, with priority given to the procurement and use of products with Grade 1 water efficiency ratings.
(3) Improve water conservation laws, regulations, and standards. Actively implement the "Regulations on Water Conservation," encourage localities to formulate and enact local water conservation laws and regulations tailored to local conditions, improve the local water conservation policy framework, and reinforce the primary responsibility of water users.Accelerate research on establishing a water conservation statistical system. Build a multi-tiered standard system—covering national, industry, local, group, and enterprise levels—centered on the water conservation industry; expedite the formulation and revision of water conservation standards; and promote the alignment of domestic standards with international standards. Establish a dynamic updating mechanism for water quotas; refine water efficiency grading standards for end-use products; accelerate the development of a set of standards for technology, processes, equipment, testing, evaluation, management, and services to lead the development of the water conservation industry; and encourage enterprises to establish even stricter corporate standards.
(4) Improve water conservation market mechanisms. Fully implement progressive surcharges for non-residential water use exceeding quotas and a tiered pricing system for residential water use, while reasonably determining the volume thresholds for each tier.Vigorously advance comprehensive agricultural water pricing reform, actively implement tiered water pricing, and improve the mechanisms for targeted agricultural water subsidies and water-saving incentives. Improve market mechanisms related to the development and utilization of non-conventional water resources to promote market-based trading of such resources. Refine the water rights system and promote various forms of water rights trading—including between river basins, regions, sectors, and water users—in a manner tailored to local conditions.
III. Strengthening the Supply of Water-Saving Products and Equipment
(5) Promote the upgrading of water-saving products and equipment. Support enterprises in increasing investment in research, development, design, and production to establish a supply system for water-saving products and equipment spanning from basic raw materials to end-consumer goods, and promote the digital, intelligent, and green development of water-saving product manufacturing.Regularly publish the *National Catalog of Mature and Applicable Water-Saving Technologies* and the *National Catalog of Encouraged Industrial Water-Saving Processes, Technologies, and Equipment*, and establish a national certification catalog for water-saving products to be incorporated into the green product certification and labeling system. Promote advanced water-saving equipment and products, drive large-scale upgrades of water-saving equipment and trade-ins of consumer goods, and accelerate the phasing out of outdated water-using products and equipment. Continuously advance initiatives such as the selection of water-efficiency leaders for water-using products to establish benchmarks for water-saving product efficiency.
(6) Strengthen Quality Supervision and Management of Water-Saving Products.Strictly implement the water-saving product quality supervision and inspection system and the water efficiency labeling management system; strengthen random inspections of water-saving product quality; urge manufacturers of water-saving products and equipment to organize production in strict accordance with technical standards; and crack down on acts such as falsely labeling water efficiency and fabricating certification results in accordance with the law. Strengthen the construction of quality integrity systems for water-saving product enterprises; improve the credit records of water-saving product manufacturers in accordance with laws and regulations; and enhance the disclosure of product quality information. Fully leverage the role of social supervision and increase the severity of penalties for enterprises with poor credit.
IV. Innovating Water-Saving Management and Service Models
(7) Vigorously Promote Contract-Based Water Conservation Management. Comprehensively promote contract-based water conservation management in water-intensive industries and sectors, and encourage the exploration of innovative water conservation management models. In public institutions such as government agencies, schools, and hospitals, implement contract-based water conservation management through models such as purchasing services or entrusting management. In public buildings such as office buildings, shopping malls, airports, and stations, encourage the adoption of contract-based water conservation management through the participation of social capital. Promote the implementation of contract-based water conservation management upgrades in water-intensive service industries.In water-intensive industrial enterprises and industrial parks—such as thermal power generation, steel, textiles, papermaking, petrochemicals, and chemicals—strengthen water balance testing services, promote the use of reclaimed water, construct seawater desalination projects tailored to local conditions, advance water-saving retrofits of cooling systems, process reengineering, and intelligent system control, and explore the implementation of contract water conservation management.Expand markets in areas such as high-efficiency water-saving irrigation, control of water supply network leakage, and water environment remediation, and innovate contract water conservation management models. Promote cooperation between water-saving enterprises and universities, research institutes, and other entities to cultivate a group of third-party service providers offering comprehensive solutions, including water-saving design consulting, system integration, facility construction, operational management, and digital upgrades.
(8) Strengthen water metering, monitoring, and management. Improve the water abstraction and consumption metering, monitoring, and traceability system, and enhance precise metering and control of water supply and consumption. Promote online metering systems for water supply and consumption, ensuring separate metering for water from different sources and for different uses. Encourage water supply enterprises to implement zoned metering management for water supply networks. Implement intelligent water use control and management in high-water-consumption enterprises, industrial parks, and large and medium-sized irrigation districts.Strengthen digital empowerment to promote the deep integration of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and digital twins with water system management technologies. Explore the establishment of typical application scenarios for “Internet Plus Water Conservation Management” to achieve precise water use control. Accelerate the construction of national water resource metering stations, promote regular verification and calibration of water abstraction and use metering facilities, and enhance the level of water metering management.
V. Leveraging the Leading Role of Key Enterprises
(9) Actively Cultivate Key Water-Saving Enterprises. Focus on incubating, nurturing, and expanding water-saving enterprises, and intensify efforts to foster “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Foster the emergence of a group of water-saving product and equipment manufacturers and service providers with strong innovation capabilities, high management standards, and international competitiveness. Cultivate a cohort of leading enterprises in fields such as water-saving design and R&D, product and equipment manufacturing, engineering construction, and management services, and build a series of influential industrial brands with strong driving effects.Fully leverage the role of leading enterprises as the primary engines of industrial chains and their aggregation and radiation effects. Strengthen coordination and support within industrial and supply chains to foster a favorable industrial ecosystem where enterprises of different ownership structures—including large, medium, and small businesses—can develop in an integrated manner. Select a group of water efficiency leaders in key water-consuming industries to encourage enterprises to benchmark against standards and improve water use efficiency.
(10) Encourage the development of water-saving industrial clusters. Encourage localities to build water-saving industrial clusters with regional characteristics based on their own needs and strengths.In regions with concentrated innovation resources and a strong manufacturing base, vigorously develop water-saving equipment manufacturing clusters. In the arid northwest, the rainy south, and areas within the Yellow River basin where water-intensive industries are concentrated, cultivate a group of specialized water-saving service enterprises focused on water-saving irrigation, equipment manufacturing, water storage and flood control, and industrial water-saving retrofits, respectively. Support eligible localities in establishing water-saving industrial parks.
VI. Promoting Technological Innovation in the Water-Saving Industry
(11) Encourage technological breakthroughs and the application of research outcomes. Support research institutes, universities, leading enterprises, and industry associations in conducting basic research on water conservation and innovating applied technologies; promote breakthroughs in core “bottleneck” technologies; and strengthen the systematic integration of water-saving technologies.Strengthen collaborative research on industry-specific technical challenges, focusing on breakthroughs in key common technologies such as the treatment and recycling of organic and high-salinity wastewater, efficient cooling, high-performance membrane materials, high-efficiency catalysts and green chemicals, water conservation in thermal and process systems, water conservation in washing processes, intelligent monitoring and optimized control, and the utilization of non-conventional water sources.Develop strategic intellectual property reserves for key core and foundational common water-saving technologies in the industry, and strengthen the protection and utilization of intellectual property. Establish platforms such as a national strategic alliance for water-saving industrial technology innovation to promote the transformation and widespread application of water-saving technology R&D achievements.
(12) Deepen the development of technological innovation capabilities. Leverage the roles of national-level science and technology innovation platforms, national major innovation bases, and relevant industry research institutes to establish water-saving science and technology innovation centers and experimental bases.Strengthen the leading role of enterprises in technological innovation, encourage enterprises to take the lead in tackling major challenges, and support enterprises in spearheading national science and technology projects related to water conservation. Strengthen the development of relevant disciplines such as water conservation, non-conventional water utilization, and water-saving equipment manufacturing; encourage enterprises, research institutes, and universities to establish joint training mechanisms to cultivate applied talent in water conservation disciplines.
VII. Strengthening Support and Safeguards for the Water Conservation Industry
(13) Strengthen fiscal, tax, and financial support. Utilize existing special funds from the central budgetary investment to support eligible projects related to water pollution control and water resource conservation; utilize central government water conservancy development funds to encourage the development of the water-saving industry and technological innovation. Fully implement current national tax preferential policies to encourage technological innovation in water conservation, equipment manufacturing, and green consumption of water-saving products. The central government and local governments will coordinate to support the replacement of old water-consuming products with new ones and the widespread adoption of high-efficiency water-saving fixtures.Promote “water-saving loans” and explore the use of equity-based collateral models, such as water abstraction rights and discharge rights, to increase credit support for the water-saving industry. Support eligible water-saving enterprises in broadening their financing channels through measures such as issuing green bonds.
(14) Actively establish platforms for exchange and cooperation. Encourage regions with the necessary conditions to organize various forms of exhibitions, trade fairs, and technology showcases for water-saving products and equipment, publicize and promote mature and applicable water-saving technologies, and build platforms for water-saving enterprises to exchange advanced water-saving technologies and deepen cooperation, thereby stimulating the supply and demand market for the water-saving industry. Guide foreign and private capital to increase investment in the water-saving industry.Encourage qualified research institutions and high-tech enterprises to participate more actively in relevant international water-related activities, and to engage in technical, product, and service cooperation—including overseas water-saving technical consulting, engineering construction, and operations management—to contribute to the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
(15) Strengthen public awareness and guidance on water conservation. In conjunction with thematic campaigns such as World Water Day, China Water Week, and the National Urban Water Conservation Awareness Week, conduct extensive and in-depth publicity efforts through diverse channels. Enhance public education on water conservation, provide training on water-saving practices, and promote exemplary cases of water-saving products and industry development. Integrate water conservation into civic education and primary and secondary school curricula, strengthen education on national conditions and water resources, and foster a culture of water conservation among the entire population.Fully leverage the role of public and social oversight to foster a positive societal atmosphere that values, cherishes, and conserves water.
National Development and Reform Commission
Ministry of Water Resources
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
June 25, 2024
