Quzhou in East China's Zhejiang province has been striving to reduce water usage in the city and has seen strong results.

The total amount of water used in the city decreased from 1.34 billion cubic meters in 2015 to 1.03 billion cu m in 2021, a reduction of 23 percent.

As the proportion of agricultural water consumption is higher than the average level in the province, the city has carried out water-saving irrigation projects, including pipeline water transmission, channel seepage control, sprinkling irrigation, micro-irrigation and water and fertilizer integration to realize water-saving.

By 2021, the city's agricultural irrigation water consumption had dropped from 659.32 million cu m in 2015 to 557.32 million cu m.

To reduce industrial water consumption, the city has adopted measures such as reclaimed water utilization. The maximum annual water-saving capacity of the reclaimed water reuse project is more than 4 million metric tons.

The project of reclaimed water reuse is carried out in Longyou Economic Development Zone. [Photo/qz828.com]

In addition, the city has accelerated the upgrading of urban and rural water supply networks. In 2021, 37.4 kilometers of new water supply pipelines were built and 27 km of water supply pipelines were upgraded to reduce leakage. The utilization rate of urban reclaimed water reached 15 percent.