[Mainland China] The General Office of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Office of Agricultural Bank of China jointly issued a notice to deploy financial services for the water-saving industry: Industrial Wastewater recycling, centralized treatment

General Office of the Ministry of Water Resources and Office of Agricultural Bank of China jointly issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Financial Services for the High-Quality Development of the Water-Saving Industry," providing green financial supply for the water-saving industry during the "15th Five-Year Plan." The document clearly identifies four key support areas: agricultural water-saving and efficiency enhancement, industrial water-saving and emission reduction, urban water-saving and loss reduction, and development and utilization of unconventional water. Among these, industrial enterprise wastewater recycling, centralized treatment and utilization of wastewater in industrial parks, construction of digital and intelligent water management platforms, and substitution with unconventional water are individually written into the credit investment list.

A document jointly signed by the water administrative department and a large state-owned commercial bank is drawing up a financing roadmap for the water-saving industry during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

2026年9月16日, the Ministry of Water Resources published on its government information disclosure column the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Financial Services for the High-Quality Development of the Water-Saving Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), jointly issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Office of Agricultural Bank of China. The document states its purpose at the outset: to thoroughly implement the relevant requirements of the "Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China," further strengthen government-bank cooperation in the water-saving field, and use green finance to support the high-quality development of the water-saving industry.

On the surface, it appears to be a routine interdepartmental cooperation document, but for the water treatment industry, its significance lies in transforming water-saving targets that have long remained at the level of administrative assessment into a list of project types that the banking system can identify, evaluate, and lend to.

Overall Requirements: From Campaign-Style Water Saving to Financialized Allocation

The overall requirements of the "Notice" propose fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and all its plenary sessions, earnestly implementing the arrangements of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, and thoroughly carrying out General Secretary Xi Jinping's water governance approach of "prioritizing water conservation, balancing spatial distribution, systematic governance, and exerting both government and market forces" and the spirit of his important expositions on water governance, as well as fully implementing the rigid water resource constraint system and the "Regulations on Water Conservation."

In terms of its focus, the document clearly states that it should be based on the overall situation of financial services for the real economy, green development, and comprehensive rural revitalization, focus on the financial needs of key areas in the high-quality development of the water-saving industry, expand green financial supply, and improve the quality and efficiency of financial services, help build a modern water-saving industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone, and provide all-round, diversified financial support for the conservation and intensive use of water resources and the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.

The phrase "with advanced manufacturing as its backbone" deserves attention. In the past, water-saving work was mostly driven by engineering projects, but this policy clearly places the focus of the water-saving industry on equipment manufacturing and technical service capabilities, meaning that manufacturing and service segments such as high-efficiency water-saving irrigation equipment, industrial water-saving process equipment, membrane materials and membrane modules, intelligent metering instruments, and smart water platforms will be prioritized for financial support.

Breaking Down the Four Major Support Areas One by One

The "Notice" lists four key support areas, covering almost the entire chain from water plants to faucets.

I. Agricultural Water-Saving and Efficiency Enhancement

This includes projects such as water-saving irrigation, water-saving renovation of irrigation districts, breeding and cultivation of drought-tolerant crops, water saving in animal husbandry and fisheries, rural water supply (including integrated urban-rural water supply), and rural domestic water saving. The document proposes actively supporting the modernization and renovation of irrigation districts, as well as the construction of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation projects and rural centralized water supply facilities and supporting pipe networks in areas such as areas with severe water shortages and overload, groundwater overexploitation areas, major grain-producing areas, and ecologically fragile areas.

What is noteworthy is the document's precise orientation: rather than broad-based coverage, it clearly directs credit resources to the four types of regions with the most acute water resource conflicts. This echoes the approach in the draft amendment to the "Water Law" of establishing a list of water resource overload areas and suspending new water withdrawal permits in overloaded areas.

II. Industrial Water-Saving and Emission Reduction

This is the category most directly related to the water treatment industry, explicitly including projects such as water-saving renovation of industrial parks and enterprises, construction of water-saving industrial enterprises and parks, industrial enterprise wastewater recycling, centralized treatment and utilization of wastewater in industrial parks, and water intake and use monitoring and metering.

The "Notice" further lists three priority directions:

• Water-saving renovation and unconventional water substitution in high water-consuming industrial parks — seven major industries are named: thermal power generation, steel, textiles, papermaking, petrochemicals and chemicals, building materials, and nonferrous metals. These are both major water users and major wastewater generators;
• Technical renovation needs such as upgrading enterprise water-saving processes, equipment renewal, wastewater recycling, and unconventional water substitution;
• Quality-based, cascading, and recycling utilization of water resources among industrial enterprises — this in effect brings cross-enterprise water network coordination within industrial parks into the scope of support.

Particularly noteworthy is the item "water intake and use monitoring and metering," which points to a rapidly growing niche: the renewal of metering instruments and the construction of data platforms.

III. Urban Water Conservation and Loss Reduction

This includes projects such as water-saving retrofits of public facilities, institutions, and venues, construction of digital and intelligent water management platforms, community water-saving fixture replacement, and adaptive retrofits for water budget management; actively supports leakage monitoring and control of public water supply networks, and the development of water-saving public institutions, as well as water-saving retrofits in high-water-consumption service industries such as hotels, swimming venues, car washes, bathing facilities, universities, and outdoor artificial ski resorts.

The fact that "outdoor artificial ski resorts" are named alongside car washes and bathing facilities as high-water-consumption service industries shows that the policy granularity has become detailed down to individual specific business formats.

IV. Development and Utilization of Unconventional Water

The Notice lists this separately as the fourth category of key supported areas. Combined with the fact that the second review draft of the revised Water Law has explicitly incorporated collected rainwater, seawater and desalinated seawater, mine (pit) water, brackish water, and other unconventional water sources into the unified allocation of water resources, as well as the requirement to promote Reclaimed Water at the level of designated towns, this area—including Reclaimed Water plant construction costs, supporting pipeline networks, and transmission projects from intake points to users—will all have a clear financing basis.

What Changes on the Financial Side Mean

For a long time, Reclaimed Water and Industrial Wastewater reuse projects have faced three longstanding problems in financing: first, project cash flow depends on water prices, which are themselves regulated; second, benefits are often externalized—the water saved and the sewage fees reduced may not be measurable or capturable by the project company; third, supporting facilities such as pipeline networks lack independent repayment sources.

The value of the Notice lies precisely in responding to these pain points from the funding supply side, and its impact can be understood along three lines.

• Project listification—once "Industrial enterprise wastewater recycling," "centralized treatment and utilization of wastewater in Industrial Parks," and "unconventional water substitution" are written into the policy text, banks have a clear basis for credit approval and green credit recognition, and project applications shift from "telling a story" to "matching a list";
• Demand planning—"unconventional water substitution in high-water-consumption parks" is in effect encouraging parks to replace fresh water with Reclaimed Water, which will generate demand for a complete set of services including water intake substitution accounting, water balance testing, and pipeline network retrofits;
• Asset digitization—"water intake and use monitoring and metering" and "digital and intelligent water management platforms" are explicitly listed as supported objects, meaning that metering data and platform capabilities are turning from cost items into financeable asset items.

Attention should also be paid to the policy coordination behind the document. The Regulations on Water Conservation have already established rigid institutions, the Water Law is being revised, and "a modern industrial system compatible with water resource carrying capacity" has been written into the second review draft. The supporting assessment for the State Council's Regulations on Water Conservation continues to intensify; the Ecological Environment Code also clearly states that the state encourages and supports wastewater resource utilization, that local governments at or above the county level should coordinate planning and construction of wastewater resource utilization infrastructure, and that Reclaimed Water and other unconventional water sources should be incorporated into the unified allocation of water resources. Administrative legislation + financial supply are forming a closed loop: on one hand making water conservation a statutory obligation, and on the other opening up funding channels.

What It Means for Us: TIANYI TECH's Assessment

TIANYI TECH has long served municipal and Industrial Park wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse clients. In light of the Notice, we recommend that clients plan ahead in three directions: first, turn park wastewater recycling and unconventional water substitution into quantifiable project packages—clearly defining fresh water substitution volume, Reclaimed Water supply volume, pipeline mileage, and energy consumption level, which are the cash flow foundations banks value most in review; second, simultaneously deploy water intake and use metering and Smart Water platforms—in one sentence, fix "the water saved" with data, so that water savings shift from an empirical value to a settlement basis; third, pay attention to the stacking space of financial instruments—green credit, special-purpose bonds, policy-based financial instruments, and the investment direction guidance formed by this document can be used in combination to reduce project capital pressure. Once the funding channel is opened, the key to whether a project can be implemented returns to the original point of whether the technical solution can make water savings solid.

About TIANYI LIMITED: TIANYI TECH is deeply engaged in the field of wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse, committed to providing efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable water treatment solutions for municipal and industrial clients.