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2026-10-09Key Facts: The Shandong Provincial Department of Water Resources issued the "Shandong Province Action Plan for Comprehensively Building a Water-Saving Institutional and Policy System (2026–2030年)," which explicitly incorporates the development and utilization of unconventional water into the unified allocation of water resources, promotes close alignment between upgrading and renovation of wastewater treatment plants and the allocation and utilization of reclaimed water, and requires that urban greening, municipal miscellaneous use, and ecological landscapes give priority to reclaimed water that meets standards. By 2030年, the province's urban reclaimed water utilization rate will reach 60%, and the utilization volume of unconventional water will reach more than 25亿 cubic meters.
I. Policy Positioning: From "Encouraging Utilization" to "Unified Allocation"
The coverage of this action plan is not limited to reclaimed water; rather, it is an institutional system covering four major areas: agriculture, industry, urban areas, and unconventional water. However, from the perspective of practitioners in wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse, the most significant signal is the section on "improving the unconventional water utilization system" — it rewrites reclaimed water from the previous flexible wording of "encouraged for use in areas where conditions permit" into a rigid arrangement of incorporating it into the unified allocation of water resources and the layout of modern water network construction.
The weight of this wording change lies in the fact that once reclaimed water enters "unified allocation," it is no longer optional but a formal item in the regional water resources balance sheet. When local governments formulate annual water use plans and verify water intake indicators, they must simultaneously consider the available supply volume of reclaimed water, which directly changes the demand-side certainty of reclaimed water projects.
II. Four Key Levers
- Plant-network alignment — The plan requires promoting close alignment between the upgrading and renovation of wastewater treatment plants and the allocation and utilization of reclaimed water, and improving production and transmission facilities. This means that future wastewater plant upgrading will no longer be an isolated project; it must be planned and constructed in sync with downstream reclaimed water transmission and distribution networks and intake stations.
- Targeted breakthroughs with key users — It explicitly increases the allocation of reclaimed water for chemical industrial parks and high water-consuming enterprises, while requiring that urban greening, municipal miscellaneous use, and ecological landscapes give priority to reclaimed water that meets standards. Both industrial and municipal users are locked in simultaneously.
- Market-oriented pricing mechanism — Unconventional water follows the principle of "high quality, high price," with pricing determined through negotiation between supply and demand parties under government coordination. This provides a policy basis for reclaimed water projects to escape the dilemma of "low price or even free of charge," making the investment recovery model feasible.
- Monitoring and standards support — Compile relevant technical guidelines for reclaimed water utilization, advance the construction of an unconventional water metering and monitoring system, and establish a reclaimed water monitoring information sharing mechanism. Metering and monitoring are prerequisites for pricing and regulation, and also an opportunity window for Smart Water enterprises.
III. Supporting Systems: Water Budgeting, Water Pricing, and Contracted Water Saving Advancing on Three Fronts
A single utilization rate indicator alone is difficult to support the 60% target, so the plan has designed a complete set of supporting institutional arrangements:
- Water budget management pilot — Issue the "Shandong Province Water Budget Management Measures (Trial)" to promote water budget management covering all regions, all water sources, all industries, and all users, and build a province-wide water budget management information platform. Encourage exploration of water volume storage, water rights trading, and water-saving incentive mechanisms in conjunction with the pilot.
- Water pricing and water resource tax reform — Improve the cost supervision and examination for water supply pricing of water conservancy projects and the mechanism for verifying regional comprehensive water prices; implement tiered water pricing for residents and progressive surcharges for non-residential water use exceeding quotas (or plans); implement differentiated tax rates for water resource tax, and carry out tax reduction policies for taxpayers whose industrial water use efficiency reaches the advanced value of the national water use quota.
- Contracted water saving management — Promote its full-scenario application in areas such as water supply network leakage control, water-saving renovation of public institutions, industrial water recycling, agricultural water-saving irrigation, and development and utilization of unconventional water; promote models such as "contracted water saving management + agricultural water price reform" and "contracted water saving management + water rights trading," and explore steward-style services.
All three fronts point in the same direction: replacing mere administrative appeals with price leverage + market-oriented services, so that water saving and reclaimed water utilization generate measurable economic returns.
IV. Horizontal Comparison: Provincial Targets Are Being Intensively Raised
Shandong is not an isolated case. In the past two months, multiple provinces and regions have intensively raised reclaimed water requirements in their "15th Five-Year Plan" for water ecological environment protection and water conservation:
- Ningxia — The "Ningxia Water Ecological Environment Protection '15th Five-Year Plan'" (issued by 2026年9月29日) proposes implementing projects such as the Yongning County Reclaimed Water Plant Renovation and Water Quality Upgrade and the Shapotou District Domestic Sewage Resource Utilization, to shore up shortcomings in reclaimed water distribution and utilization, and encourages industrial and mining enterprises to carry out cascade utilization and quality-based reuse of industrial wastewater and mine water.
- Tianjin — The "Tianjin Municipal Wastewater Treatment Fee Collection and Use Management Measures" (issued by 2026年9月15日) specifies that the collection standard shall be formulated on the principle of "covering the normal operation of wastewater treatment facilities and sludge treatment and disposal costs while ensuring reasonable profit," providing funding guarantees for upgrading and renovation from the cost side.
- Qingdao — The Municipal Water Affairs Administration, together with the Urban Management Bureau and the Landscape and Forestry Bureau, issued a notice requiring that in areas covered by the pipe network and where water quality meets standards, urban miscellaneous use and landscaping shall give priority to reclaimed water, and incorporating this into annual water use plan management.
One clear trend is that reclaimed water is being elevated from "a supplementary item in water conservation work" to "a mandatory option in water resource allocation," and the assessment indicators are becoming increasingly specific and quantified.
V. Three Practical Impacts on the Industry
- Demand for upgrading and renovation of existing wastewater treatment plants is being released in a concentrated manner — To support the reclaimed water utilization rate of 60%, the effluent quality of many existing plants designed to the Grade 1A standard can hardly meet the needs of industrial reuse and high-requirement municipal miscellaneous use. The addition of advanced treatment units (Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis, ozone/UV disinfection) will shift from "demonstration" to "standard configuration."
- Distribution networks become the new main battlefield for investment — The crux of low reclaimed water utilization rate often lies not in "being unable to produce" but in "being unable to deliver." The plan emphasizes "improving production and distribution facilities," meaning the proportion of construction investment in pipe networks, pumping stations, intake stations, and metering facilities will rise significantly.
- Revaluation of operational service value — As the "quality-based pricing" negotiated pricing mechanism is implemented, the revenue attribute of reclaimed water is formally confirmed. Enterprises with integrated capabilities in upgrading and renovation + pipe network operation + long-term O&M will shift from pure engineering construction contractors to long-term operational service providers.
VI. TIANYI TECH's Viewpoint
TIANYI TECH believes that Shandong's inclusion of 60% and 25亿 cubic meters in the five-year action plan is truly significant in that it turns reclaimed water from an "environmental protection indicator" into a "water supply indicator." Once it enters unified allocation, the demand side becomes rigid, and only then can the return model on the investment side be clearly articulated. For enterprises, the focus of competition will shift from "whether the water can be treated well" to "whether qualified reclaimed water can be reliably delivered to the user end at the agreed price" — this is a long-term race about system reliability and full life-cycle costs.
About TIANYI LIMITED
TIANYI LIMITED focuses on the fields of wastewater treatment, reclaimed water reuse, and water resource recycling, providing one-stop services from process consulting, solution design, equipment integration, engineering implementation to smart O&M. The company is committed to promoting wastewater resource utilization through technological innovation, helping industrial enterprises and municipal clients achieve multiple goals of water conservation and carbon reduction, compliant discharge, and sustainable development.
Source: Comprehensive compilation of the Shandong Provincial Department of Water Resources' "Notice on Issuing the 〈Shandong Province Action Plan for Comprehensively Building a Water Conservation Institutional and Policy System (2026—2030年)〉" (released by 2026年9月30日) and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Department of Ecology and Environment's "Ningxia Water Ecological Environment Protection '15th Five-Year Plan'" (2026年9月29日)
