China's water-use efficiency reaches global average

China's water-use efficiency has reached the global average after years of progress, an official with the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) said on March 22.

The water use per 10,000 yuan ($1,533) of GDP and the water use per 10,000 yuan of industrial value-added stood at 60.8 and 38.4 cubic meters, respectively, in 2019, down 24 percent and 28 percent from that in 2015, MWR data shows.

Meanwhile, the effective utilization coefficient of farmland water irrigation rose from 0.536 in 2015 to 0.559 in 2019.

"China's three main water-saving indexes have all hit the goal of 2020 set by the national water-saving campaign. China's water-use efficiency, as a whole, has reached the global average level," said Xu Wenhai, director of MWR's National Office of Water Conservation.

MWR data also shows that China's total water consumption remains generally stable even as the country develops by leaps and bounds.

"Despite marked progress in water conservation, there are still outstanding issues such as insufficient, unbalanced and unsustainable water conservation," Xu said, noting ample room for improvement in terms of water saving.