At the recent State Council policy briefing, the relative person in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that at present the country has built a total of 11 batches of 145 national water-saving city, while introducing the "Regulations on Water Conservation" and answering reporters' questions. Meanwhile, the annual recycled water usage in cities across the country has reached about 18 billion cubic meters, with the utilization rate reaching 29%.

   He also said that in recent years, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to promote in-depth urban water conservation work, water conservation requirements throughout the entire process of urban planning, construction, governance, and comprehensively promote the construction of water-saving cities and enhance urban water use efficiency, and has made certain achievements.

   The first is to improve the urban water conservation system and establish a long-term mechanism. A series of systems such as urban water conservation planning, planned water use and quota management, and water conservation statistics have been established and perfected, and the "3 simultaneous actions" requirement for water conservation, which refers to water conservation facilities were simultaneously designed, simultaneously constructed and simultaneously put into use with main facilities, has been implemented in all kinds of construction projects. The Guidance on Urban Water Conservation and the Working Guidelines of Urban Water Conservation have been issued to guide localities to systematize and standardize the promotion of urban water conservation.

   The Second is to build a standardized normative system and promote the innovation of science and technology. A series of standards and specifications, including domestic water appliances, water conservation in civil buildings, sewage recycling, leakage control of water supply networks, green buildings, have been issued to regulate and promote the technological innovation and equipment developments.

   The Third is to comprehensively promote the building of water-saving cities and enhance the effectiveness of water use. In 2022, the State Council has published a new edition of Evaluation Criteria for National Water-conserving Cities, in order to guide local governments to promote urban water conservation and strengthen the construction of relative facilities and the implementation of various water-conserving systems. Week-long national campaign to promote urban water conservation has been successfully held for 32 years. Through advocating the construction of water-saving units, water-saving enterprises and water-saving neighborhoods, the campaign has helped to constantly strengthened the social basis he social foundation of water-saving city construction. At the same time, the recycling of urban wastewater has been continued to promote, same as the upgrading of capacity of recycled water production, transmission and distribution, pilot projects related to recycled water utilization in 116 cities were also been carried out.

   The person in charge said that the next step, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will guide local governments to improve the implementation of the Regulations on Water Conservation in accordance with their responsibilities, to further enhance the efficiency of water resources utilization, and to promote the high-quality development of the city.