The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the sixth of which is "Clean Water and Sanitation", namely: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all.  (Click here for details)

Under this major goal, there are eight targets, the third of which is "By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity".

● Current Situation

About the World

Freshwater Scarcity Globally 

Although some parts of the world are "rich in freshwater resources", other areas are facing serious drought threat. More importantly, only part of the fresh water is available for human use and drinking, while rest of them exists in the ocean, glaciers or snow fields. 

Photo source: sohu.com

Water resources are scarce in many places globally. Climate change is one of the most important reasons of freshwater shortage. Human consumption, manufacturing progress and agriculture intensive industries are other factors that increase water consumption. According to the data from the United Nations, the world's water consumption has increased twice as much as the population in the past 100 years, which means that 700 million people will encounter serious water shortage by 2030.

Text source: cnis.ac.cn

About China

Water Use Efficiency Improved Significantly

China's water use efficiency continues to improve and water resources allocation and management have been significantly improved. China has been actively building a water-saving society. 

Photo source: sohu.com

In 2019, China's water use per 10000 RMB GDP was 60.8 cubic meters, down 23.8% compared with the data in 2015. Water use per 10000 RMB of industrial added value was 38.4 cubic meters, down 27.5% compared with the data in 2015; The effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water reached 0.559, increased by 0.023 compared with 2015.

Text source: People's Daily

●  Cases

About the World

IOT Improved Water Use Efficiency

Lindsay Corp integrated remote monitor and wireless communication sensors with other applications and built a pivot irrigation system of watering crops. 

Photo source: sohu.com

The remote management system helped farmers to know exactly how much water they needed, and nutrition level, soil moisture and so on as to avoid excessive or insufficient water supply for crops. The Internet of things system enables farmers to obtain more value from the big data and make more accurate decisions for improving the efficiency of water use.

Text source: cloud.tencent.com

Water Use Efficiency in Singapore

Singapore's domestic water resources are 600 million cubic meters with its per capita is only 211 cubic meters. It is one of the countries with extreme water shortage in the world. Due to its water resources, Singaporean government made the scientific and reasonable medium and long-term plan of the two-way development including resource opening and saving, and carried out the four 'national water pipeline' plan, which were natural water, intake water, fresh water and desalinated seawater, and gradually reduced imported water. 

Photo source: toutiaosg.com

In addition, the Singapore Public Utilities Bureau managed the water demand through water resources tax policy and laddering water price with economic lever to regulate the water demand. The unit price of water use in Singapore is relatively high. Singaporean need to pay for water fee as well as sewage treatment and cleaning fee. High water prices not only play a role in curbing waste, but also provide financial support for future investment.

Text source: h2o-china.com

About China

Building Water Saving Parks in Shenzhen

Shenzhen is a city with abundant rainwater and it has been actively building green space in parks of water collection and saving. Through actively opening up and making full use of non-traditional water sources such as rainwater and reclaimed water, the city has used water resources in a sustainable way with effective water saving. 

Photo source: sohu.com

On March 24, 2021, Shenzhen municipal government held a press conference and released the Plan of Shenzhen Building a Water-saving Model City in Leading Socialism Demonstration Area with Chinese Characteristics (2020-2025) proposing the "Seven Actions" for Shenzhen becoming a water-saving city.

Text source: sz.gov.cn

Nestle Water Management

Water is both raw material and tool for the Nestle Group, the world's largest food and beverage manufacturing company. Adequate and high-quality water is an important cornerstone for the company’s production, operation and maintenance. In China, waste water from all Nestle factories were treated by sewage, and met the national discharge standard. 

Photo source: baidu.com

In 2016, Nestle China invested nearly 20 million RMB to officially launch the zero water consumption project and its first zero water consumption factory was in Qingdao. It further promoted water management in the production process and improved water use efficiency. The zero water consumption project included two sets of world advanced water-saving projects, the reclaimed water recovery and the fresh milk water optimization project, in order to improve the recycling and safe reuse of water. Nestle's water resources management project was selected as "2017 Excellent Case of Foreign Invested Enterprises Fulfilling Social Responsibility".

Text source: ce.cn

●  Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On 1 January, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.