Guiyang promotes urban water saving

In recent years, Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, which has been experiencing resource-based and engineering-based water shortages, has been furthering urban water-saving efforts by establishing and improving water conservation policies and enhancing the capacity of water resources that can be used.

To boost the natural restoration of the water ecosystem, Guiyang has given key protections to sensitive areas including rivers, wetlands and ditches, while also strengthening its control of them at the source.  

Guiyang has also built a raft of sponge parks and green spaces – such as small and micro wetlands, rainwater gardens, and vegetative buffer zones – to improve the ability of these urban green spaces in terms of absorbing rain.

As such, the size of the city's urban permeable ground is now proportionally higher than the national water-saving city assessment requirements.

Additionally, efforts have been made to optimize the development and utilization of surface water and groundwater, as well as to improve domestic sewage treatment in urban areas to enhance the quality of water in the local environment.

To more precisely plan and manage the way water is used in urban areas, Guiyang has strengthened its water-saving controls among high water-consuming enterprises and institutions.

In 2022, 20.32 percent of enterprises in Guiyang scored highly in terms of water conservation. Through technological innovations and upgrading, the industrial water reuse rate reached 92.7 percent, while the amount of water consumed per 10,000 yuan ($1,428) was reduced to 35.52 cubic meters.

Guiyang has issued more than 13.67 million yuan in awards and subsidies to encourage enterprises to adopt more water-saving initiatives.

Moving forward, it will continue to consolidate and expand its achievements in water conservation to further boost the city's sustainable development.