Industry News
2026-10-16The pilot program for reclaimed water utilization allocation in typical regions organized by the Ministry of Water Resources and six ministries and commissions (2021—2025) has concluded, forming 10 advanced models and 14 typical cases; two cases from Jiangsu's Wuxin District of Wuxi and Suqian City were selected. The reclaimed water utilization rate in Wuxin District increased from 29.5% to 38.4%, and Suqian calculated the total value of reclaimed water ecological products at 12.83亿 yuan, of which the value of pollution reduction accounted for over 70%.
I. Conclusion of the Five-Year Pilot: 76 Cities Deliver 14 Model Cases
To implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on promoting wastewater resource utilization, from 2021年 to 2025年, the Ministry of Water Resources, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment — six ministries and commissions — jointly issued the "Pilot Program for Reclaimed Water Utilization Allocation in Typical Regions," carrying out pilot programs for reclaimed water utilization allocation in typical regions across 76 cities in 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government).
2026年10月15日, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources announced: this pilot program formed 10 advanced models and 14 typical cases that are effective, sustainable, and replicable in aspects such as reclaimed water planning, allocation, utilization, production and distribution, and incentives. Two cases from Jiangsu Province — Wuxin District of Wuxi City and Suqian City — were selected among the 14 typical cases nationwide, becoming the latest samples for observing the pathway of large-scale reclaimed water allocation and utilization in China.
II. Wuxin District: Dual Water Constraints on an Industrial Powerhouse
Wuxin District is located in the central part of the Yangtze River Delta, on the shores of Taihu Lake, and is a national high-tech industrial development zone and a core industrial carrier area of Wuxi City. The contradictions here are quite representative: on one hand, abundant rainfall and a well-developed water system; on the other hand, per capita water resources availability is less than one-tenth of the national average. At the same time, it is located in a water environment-sensitive area of the plain river network in the Taihu Lake Basin, with many dead-end rivers and poor natural hydrodynamic conditions, where pollutants easily accumulate and water environment capacity is limited. The district hosts clusters of high-end industries such as integrated circuits, photovoltaics, and electronics, with strong demand for high-quality pure water. Under traditional water-saving models, the space for reducing conventional water source consumption has become very limited.
During the pilot period, Wuxin District established a "6 + 3 + N" engineering layout system centered on 6 reclaimed water plants, 3 reclaimed water utilization allocation networks, and N reclaimed water utilization allocation model projects, supported by "four-in-one" non-engineering safeguard measures, tackling from the source the dual challenges of industrial water constraints and ecological water replenishment needs.
III. Source Quality Improvement: Proportion of Quasi-Class III Effluent Rises to 92.3%
The quality of reclaimed water is determined by wastewater treatment. Wuxin District conducted integrated planning for wastewater collection, treatment, and reclamation processes, rigidly raised discharge standards, and pushed all wastewater treatment plants in the district to meet the local standards of the Taihu Lake Basin, among which the proportion of quasi-Class III surface water effluent increased from 39.3% in 2021年 to 92.3% in 2025年.
At the same time, Wuxin District actively introduced social capital and built two high-standard reclaimed water plants, Debao and Deshuo, in the High-tech Industrial Park and Airport Industrial Park. Using advanced dual-membrane treatment processes, they deeply purify wastewater treatment plant tailwater and enterprise wastewater into high-quality pure water, forming a dual-driven pattern of "conventional wastewater treatment plants meeting basic needs + specialized reclaimed water plants ensuring high-end supply."
IV. Revitalizing Rivers: 40万 Cubic Meter Pump Station Activates Dead-End Rivers
Addressing the governance challenges of many dead-end rivers, poor hydrodynamic conditions, and easily recurring water quality in plain river network areas, Wuxin District broke through the traditional "treating water for water's sake" approach and converted high-quality reclaimed water produced after upgrading into a stable ecological water source: relying on a reclaimed water pump station with a daily treatment capacity of 40万 cubic meters and 43 kilometers of dedicated replenishment pipelines to build a precise transmission and distribution system, implementing targeted replenishment to dead-end rivers with weak water environments in subdistricts such as Jiangxi, Wangzhuang, and Meicun. After replenishment, the hydrodynamic force of river water bodies was significantly enhanced, and water quality in most rivers generally improved from inferior Class V and Class V to Class III, with water transparency and landscape effects markedly improved.
V. Quality-Differentiated Water Supply and Dynamic Tiered Pricing
- Quality-based Transmission and Distribution — Following the principle of "supplying water according to quality and distributing on demand," differentiated dedicated pipelines are built to match the water quality and pressure requirements of different uses such as river and lake replenishment, industrial cooling, process pure water, greening irrigation, environmental sanitation cleaning, and energy utilization; the reclaimed water from the Taihu New City Wastewater Treatment Plant is used as the cold and heat source of a water-source heat pump system to provide cooling and heating for regional buildings; the district has built 159 kilometers of reclaimed water trunk and branch pipe networks, serving 20 water intake points.
- Dynamic Tiered Pricing — Free use is implemented for public-benefit uses such as river replenishment; cost-price subsidies are applied to ordinary industrial uses such as industrial cooling; high-quality industrial pure water is priced at market rates with the tap water price as the upper limit.
- Institutional Support — Documents such as the "Xinwu District Reclaimed Water Utilization Management Measures," the "Xinwu District Reclaimed Water Price Management Guiding Opinions," and the "Xinwu District Reclaimed Water Utilization Assessment Mechanism and Incentive Mechanism Guidelines" have been issued; joint research with universities and institutes is carried out on water price reform, water quality improvement, and monitoring and metering, with research results directly transformed into local technical standards and policies.
VI. List of Five-Year Achievements in Xinwu District
- Utilization Volume — Reclaimed water utilization volume increased from 0.45亿 cubic meters to 0.66亿 cubic meters, and the utilization rate increased from 29.5% to 38.4%.
- Structure — 2025年 the reclaimed water utilization volumes for ecological, industrial, and domestic uses reached 3890万, 1654万, and 1055万 cubic meters respectively.
- Capacity — The district's total wastewater treatment scale increased from 52万 cubic meters/day to 59万 cubic meters/day; the reclaimed water supply capacity increased from 1.90亿 cubic meters/year to 2.14亿 cubic meters/year.
- Emission Reduction — It is estimated that Chemical Oxygen Demand, ammonia nitrogen, Total Nitrogen, and Total Phosphorus emissions will be reduced by approximately 1200 tons/year, 150 tons/year, 300 tons/year, and 20 tons/year respectively.
- Benefits — The water resources freed up by reclaimed water substitution can support an annual increase in regional GDP of more than 300亿 yuan.
VII. Suqian: The "Second Water Source" at the Eastern Route Node of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project
Suqian is located in the lower reaches of the two major water systems of the Huai River and the Yi-Shu-Si River, and occupies a key node on the Eastern Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, where water environment sensitivity, water resource scarcity, and water ecological protection needs are intertwined. Since being selected as a pilot, the Suqian Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have clearly positioned reclaimed water as a stable and reliable urban "second water source," incorporated it into the unified allocation of water resources across the region, promoted coordinated governance of "water conservation, emission reduction, and pollution control," and built a "1 + 4 + N" reclaimed water utilization and allocation system.
- Project Layout — Build 1 cross-regional allocation trunk pipelines of 115 kilometers, coordinating the four major utilization fields of agriculture, industry, domestic use, and ecology; adopt nearby primary-level allocation through upgrading wastewater treatment plants or reclaimed water plants, combined with secondary-level allocation extended through tailwater diversion projects, to precisely serve diversified users.
- Institutional System — Build a "6 + 6" policy and technical system for reclaimed water: issue 6 technical guidelines including the "Specification for Measurement Management of Reclaimed Water Utilization and Allocation" and 6 policy documents including the "Incentive Measures for Reclaimed Water Utilization in Suqian Central Urban Area," with the Municipal Water Group uniformly operating the cross-regional reclaimed water allocation business on a market basis.
- Digital and Intelligent Control — Build the Suqian City Digital Twin Reclaimed Water Utilization and Allocation System, with modules such as a smart cockpit, GIS one-map, report analysis, alarm management, and utilization analysis and assessment, to achieve dynamic monitoring and intelligent regulation of production, transmission and distribution, and utilization; apply technologies such as automatic drone inspection and artificial intelligence to promote the shift from manual scheduling to intelligent scheduling and from passive response to proactive prevention.
VIII. Accounting for Reclaimed Water as an "Ecological Asset"
The most groundbreaking exploration of the Suqian case lies in value measurement. The local area has established a reclaimed water ecological product value accounting system oriented toward the goals of "emission reduction as the main focus, water conservation as the foundation, and ecological superposition," and proposed a five-step progressive model of "value recreation—value consolidation—value manifestation—value amplification—value feedback," promoting the leap of reclaimed water from "environmental liability" to "ecological asset." According to accounting, 2025年 the total value of reclaimed water ecological products in Suqian Central Urban Area reached 12.83亿 yuan, of which the value of pollution emission reduction accounted for more than 70 percent.
Complementing this is the tailwater diversion quota trading mechanism: based on population size and industrial structure, the tailwater diversion quota of wastewater treatment plants in each region is scientifically verified as the control upper limit. Expanding reclaimed water utilization generates surplus quotas, which can be sold to regions whose actual diversion volume exceeds the verified quota, directly converting the effectiveness of reclaimed water utilization into economic returns and forming a virtuous cycle of "use more reclaimed water — discharge less tailwater — monetize quotas."
During the pilot period, the reclaimed water utilization volume in the central urban area of Suqian increased from 2598万 cubic meters to 4491万 cubic meters, and the utilization rate increased from 20.7% to 28.8%; in 2025年, the reclaimed water utilization volumes for ecological, industrial, and agricultural purposes reached 3246万, 881万, and 364万 cubic meters respectively. Pollution entering the river was reduced at the source, effectively safeguarding the water quality safety of the Eastern Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
IX. Three Insights for the Industry from Two Case Studies
First, the deepening direction of reclaimed water utilization has shifted from "total volume expansion" to "structural optimization" — Xinwu District's differentiated water supply and Suqian's cross-regional allocation are both addressing the configuration issues of "where the water is, who it is supplied to, and at what price," with pipeline networks and pricing mechanisms becoming core variables. Second, high-quality industrial demand is becoming the primary source of reclaimed water premiums. The high-purity water produced by dual-membrane processes serves industries such as integrated circuits, giving reclaimed water the pricing capability to benchmark against and even surpass tap water. Third, ecological product value accounting is an institutional innovation worth tracking. Once the pathway of "value accounting — rights confirmation and trading — conversion and monetization" is fully established, the business model of reclaimed water will expand from water supply fees to quota trading and environmental rights, and the industry's value center is expected to rise.
TIANYI TECH Co., Ltd. (TIANYI LIMITED) has long been deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse. Centering on three major directions — low-carbon processes, resource recovery, and smart operations — the company provides full-chain services from solution design, equipment manufacturing, and engineering construction to operation management for municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial parks, and various water-using entities. With the goals of "stable compliance, energy saving and consumption reduction, and resource circulation," the company continuously helps customers reduce operating costs and enhance system resilience in their green and low-carbon transition.
Source: Compiled from public information of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources' "Two Cases from Our Province Selected as National Typical Cases" (2026年10月15日) and the Ministry of Water Resources and five other ministries' "Pilot Program for Reclaimed Water Utilization Configuration in Typical Regions."
