Northwest China's Shaanxi Province has recently started to draft a series of quotas on water consumption for various industries in order to alleviate water shortage now plaguing the region.
The water consumption for producing a product or every 10,000 yuan in output value, for irrigating a hectare of cropland, and for household usage, will be precisely figured out and restrained to certain amounts, local officials said.
Anyone who consumes water beyond the quotas will be charged at a much higher price, the officials said, adding "this method is expected to be workable in curbing excessive consumption of water. "
Lacking some 2.6 billion cubic meters of water a year, Shaanxi Province is suffering from insufficient rainfall and a low water utilization ratio.
So far, Heilongjiang Province and Shanghai Municipality have introduced the system of water consumption quotas.
(People’s Daily 06/21/2001)
