[Chinese Mainland] Shanghai Issues the Water Conservation Implementation Plan (2026-2030): Unconventional Water Utilization Volume of 147 Million m³ Set as a Binding Indicator, Reclaimed Water Included in Unified Allocation and a Trading Platform to Be Es

9月14日, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government released the policy interpretation of the "Shanghai Municipal Water Conservation Implementation Plan (2026–2030年)". The Plan lists unconventional water utilization volume as a binding indicator (2025年 baseline value 1.47亿m³), explicitly states that reclaimed water is incorporated into the unified allocation of water resources, and proposes to improve the water rights and reclaimed water trading platform and promote the new model of "contract-based water conservation+".

The Shanghai Water Authority recently formulated and issued the "Shanghai Municipal Water Conservation Implementation Plan (2026–2030年)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). As a programmatic document guiding Shanghai's water conservation work during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the Plan takes strengthening the rigid constraint on water resources, stimulating the vitality of market mechanisms, and enhancing the level of smart management as its main threads, pushing unconventional water sources such as reclaimed water from a "supplementary option" to a "rigid indicator", which has benchmark significance for the reclaimed water utilization landscape in the Yangtze River Delta and even across the country.

Unconventional water utilization volume takes a binding indicator position for the first time

The Plan sets two categories of main indicators: binding and anticipated. Among them, the unconventional water utilization volume column is marked as a binding indicator, with a 2025年 baseline value of 1.47亿m³, and the 2030年 target is "meet national requirements".

Other indicators listed alongside unconventional water include:

• Total water consumption (100 million m³) — binding, 2025年 baseline value 69.41, 2030年 "meet national requirements";
• Decline in water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP (%) — binding, a cumulative decline of 37 compared with the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan";
• Decline in water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial value added (%) — anticipated, a cumulative decline of 18 compared with the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan";
• Effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water — binding, 2025年 0.740, 2030年 >0.740;
• Leakage rate of urban public water supply networks (%) — binding, 2025年 6.0, 2030年 ≤6.0.

Placing unconventional water utilization volume at the same binding level as total water consumption and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP means that this indicator will enter the assessment chain rather than remain at the level of advocacy.

Three key tasks: rule-of-law guidance, water conservation in key sectors, and regional coordination

The key tasks deployed in the Plan can be summarized into three main lines.

• Adhere to rule-of-law guidance and market-driven approaches — strictly implement national and municipal water conservation regulations, deepen whole-process management of water use quotas and water budget pilots; strengthen the level of metering and monitoring, and improve the water resources management platform; deepen the reform of water resource fees to taxes, improve the dynamic adjustment of water supply prices, and improve the water rights and reclaimed water trading platform; cultivate the water conservation industry cluster and promote the new model of "contract-based water conservation+".
• Advance water conservation in key sectors — in agriculture, promote smart precision irrigation and recirculation of aquaculture tailwater; in industry, implement time-limited retrofits for high water-consuming enterprises; in urban areas, renew one thousand kilometers of aging pipe networks, and have public institutions use water-efficient fixtures of Grade 2 or above; unconventional water utilization will incorporate reclaimed water into unified allocation, and deepen sponge city construction and seawater desalination demonstration.
• Deepen regional coordination and linkage — promote cross-regional water conservation collaboration and information sharing.

The phrase "water rights and reclaimed water trading platform" is particularly critical. Once the trading platform is implemented, reclaimed water will no longer be merely an alternative water source, but will become a water rights asset that can be rights-confirmed, accounted for, and traded.

Why put reclaimed water "on a platform"

Shanghai is a typical water-quality-induced water-scarce city: transit water volume is abundant, but local high-quality water sources are limited, and both total water consumption and total pollutant discharge are under pressure. Under such constraints, the marginal value of unconventional water is rising rapidly.

From the perspective of policy logic, this round of design has three progressive layers. The first layer is rigid constraints—incorporating unconventional water utilization volume into binding indicators, forcing each district and each major water user to free up utilization space. The second layer is price leverage—through the reform of water resource fees into taxes and dynamic adjustment of water supply prices, widening the cost gap between reclaimed water and tap water and surface water, so that reclaimed water truly gains a price advantage. The third layer is market mechanisms—water use rights and reclaimed water trading platforms turn water savings and reclaimed water use rights into tradable subjects, allowing water-saving behavior to generate realizable returns.

For water-using enterprises, this means two things: first, the deadline-based transformation of high water-consuming industries will change from "encouraged" to "required"; second, the water rights and water savings formed by proactively using reclaimed water and implementing water-saving transformations may be monetized through trading platforms in the future.

Three Implications for the Industry

• Greater certainty in supporting reclaimed water facilities—after reclaimed water is incorporated into unified allocation, the simultaneous provision of reclaimed water production and reuse facilities in newly built wastewater treatment facilities will change from a "bonus item" to a "standard configuration," and the demand for pipeline extension in scenarios such as industrial cooling, municipal miscellaneous use, and ecological water replenishment will be released accordingly.
• Graded water quality supply becomes a competitiveness factor—different uses have vastly different water quality requirements. From greening irrigation to power plant desulfurization and heating network makeup water, the capability for graded treatment and quality-differentiated water supply will determine the economics of reclaimed water projects. The share of dual-membrane processes such as "Ultrafiltration + Reverse Osmosis" in high-end industrial reuse is expected to continue increasing.
• Metering and monitoring are prerequisites—the premise of water rights trading is accurate metering. A metering and monitoring system covering the entire chain of water intake, water production, transmission and distribution, and water use, as well as traceable data management, will become the entry ticket for reclaimed water projects to enter the trading market.

What It Means for Us: TIANYI TECH's Judgment

TIANYI TECH has long served municipal and industrial park wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse clients. We recommend that clients focus on three points: first, calculate their own unconventional water utilization potential in advance and formulate annual compliance pathways against binding indicators; second, reserve interfaces for reclaimed water production and reuse in new construction or upgrading and transformation plans to avoid the later problem of "easy to build the plant, hard to get the water through"; third, simultaneously improve the design of quality-differentiated water supply and metering and monitoring to leave a data foundation for future participation in water rights trading. After reclaimed water enters the dual-track management of "indicators + platforms," the asset value of early planners will be clearly different from that of passive responders.

About TIANYI LIMITED: TIANYI LIMITED is deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse, and is committed to providing efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable water treatment solutions for municipal and industrial clients.