Market Dynamics
2026-10-20Introduction: In mid-to-late 10月, Reclaimed Water Reuse projects in industrial parks were listed on public procurement platforms in multiple locations. The Chongqing Yunyang Industrial Park wastewater centralized recycling project has a total investment of 9921万 yuan, constructing approximately 25 km of transfer pipelines and a 8000 tons/day Reclaimed Water plant; the Anhui Jieshou Beicheng Park Reclaimed Water Reuse project has an estimated contract price of 3425.97万 yuan, constructing facilities supplying 6000 cubic meters of Reclaimed Water per day; Xinjiang Bazhou separately tendered the automation system for a 40万 cubic meters Reclaimed Water tank. Reclaimed Water is emerging from the ancillary list of wastewater treatment plants as an independent item.
Three Projects, One Common Change
Looking at these three projects together, an uncommon feature emerges: the Reclaimed Water system has been packaged as a standalone tender lot.
In the past, industrial park wastewater projects were typically bundled as "wastewater treatment plant and supporting pipeline network," with Reclaimed Water Reuse often being just a sentence in the preliminary design description, frequently cut or downgraded during actual construction. The projects listed in this round, however, have written the three-stage capability of "collection—treatment—reuse" into the same contract, and even listed the Reclaimed Water pipeline network separately with pipe diameters and lengths. This means the owner's acceptance criteria have changed: it's not about how much water you treat, but how much usable water you deliver.
Behind this shift is the real pressure on industrial park water usage. Water demand from chemicals, metal processing, food and other industries continues to rise, while water intake quotas and water prices are tightening. For industrial park administrative committees, Reclaimed Water is not an environmental task but infrastructure that can be dispatched, priced, and written into investment promotion conditions. This is also why this batch of projects generally requires "first locking in reuse enterprises and water consumption, then working backward to determine the process route and scale."
Yunyang: Compressing Three-Stage Capability into One Contract
The Yunyang County Industrial Park wastewater centralized recycling capacity improvement construction project was listed for survey and design tender on 10月15日, with the owner being Yunyang County Renhe Investment and Development (Group) Co., Ltd., and the funding source being an application to the National Major Water Conservancy Project Construction Fund (Three Gorges Follow-up Work).
- Investment scale—total project investment of 9921万 yuan, of which estimated engineering costs are 8200万 yuan, and the maximum price for survey and design services is 300.12万 yuan;
- Construction content—approximately 25 km of wastewater collection and transfer pipelines in the Renhe, Songshubao, and Huangling cluster industrial parks, and one Reclaimed Water plant with a capacity of 8000 tons/day;
- Timeline—requires submission of engineering survey reports and preliminary design deliverables within 60日 calendar days after contract signing, with bid deadline on 11月11日.
The pricing challenge of this project lies in the fact that the three-stage capability cannot be accounted for separately. The slope, flow rate, and maintenance conditions of the transfer pipeline sections determine the fluctuation range of incoming water volume and quality; the process selection of the Reclaimed Water plant in turn depends on the reuse water quality requirements and consumption curves of the industrial park enterprises. The two constrain each other—if the pipe diameter is too small, the Reclaimed Water plant won't have enough feed; if the plant is sized at design values but actual reuse volume falls short, it will become a facility that sits idle upon completion.
More critically, the nature of the funding. Using the Three Gorges Follow-up Work National Major Water Conservancy Project Construction Fund means acceptance criteria will lean toward water volume, water quality, and operational records. This type of funding looks not only at whether the project is completed but also at whether it is actually producing and reusing water after completion. For bidders, writing "verifiable operational data" into the proposal is more persuasive to the owner than lowering the bid price.
Jieshou: 6000 cubic meters/day of Park-Level Supporting Facilities
The Reclaimed Water Reuse project of the wastewater treatment plant in Beicheng Park of Anhui Fuyang Jieshou High-Tech Industrial Development Zone was listed for construction tender on 10月14日, with an estimated contract price of 3425.97万 yuan.
- Treatment Capacity — Construct a new reclaimed water treatment facility with a daily reclaimed water supply of 6000 cubic meters, covering an area of approximately 2364.5 square meters;
- Transmission and Distribution System — Construct supporting reclaimed water supply pipelines from the reclaimed water plant to enterprises within the industrial park, with a maximum pipe diameter of DN400;
- Construction Period and Milestones — Construction period of 365日 calendar days, bid submission deadline 11月4日.
6000 cubic meters/day is a typical "park-level" scale — insufficient to support a large municipal reclaimed water system, but perfectly matched to the self-use demand of a medium-sized industrial park. The technology selection for such projects typically follows a short process of "pretreatment + Ultrafiltration + Reverse Osmosis," where the focus is not on how high the effluent standards are, but on water quality stability and operating costs: what park enterprises fear most is reclaimed water quality fluctuation leading to production batch rejection, with water price being a secondary concern.
The maximum pipe diameter of DN400 also reveals information: this pipeline network serves short-distance transmission and distribution within the park, rather than cross-regional long-distance water transfer. This means the pipeline network investment proportion is low while the plant investment proportion is high, and the competitiveness of the process package outweighs that of the piping materials.
Bazhou: Automation and Monitoring Separately Procured
Section II (second round) of the Wastewater Treatment Plant and Supporting Facilities Construction Project of Hebei Bazhou Ecological Industrial Park is tendering for automation equipment for the reclaimed water system. The procurement scope includes supporting 40万 cubic meter reclaimed water tanks (1 units), pump stations (1 units), and reclaimed water pipelines of 3 kilometers. This procurement covers the supply and installation of system integration equipment including booster pump station control, eccentric hemisphere valve control and pressure acquisition, pipeline network monitoring, reservoir surface deformation observation, seepage pressure monitoring, and gates, with bid submission deadline 11月2日.
The structure of this tender section is noteworthy: civil works and equipment are separated, with automation integration becoming an independent procurement item. The 40万 cubic meter reclaimed water tank represents a considerably large storage and regulation volume, and its surface deformation observation and seepage pressure monitoring fall within the scope of hydraulic engineering safety monitoring rather than conventional water treatment instrumentation. Packaging such requirements into "reclaimed water system automation" indicates that the owner's positioning of reclaimed water facilities is approaching that of hydraulic engineering — not only must they function, but they must also operate safely and be subject to regulatory oversight.
For integrators, this represents a threshold of intersecting capabilities: one must understand both the control logic of water treatment processes (pump station variable frequency, pressure closed-loop) and the safety monitoring of hydraulic structures (deformation, seepage). A party capable of delivering both types of systems simultaneously would face virtually no competitors in this tender section.
Shift in Pricing Logic: From "Work Quantity" to "Reuse Volume"
Taken together, the three projects point to the same industry trend: the pricing approach for water environment projects is changing. Work quantity is no longer the sole benchmark; reuse volume, facility availability, and data integrity are beginning to enter contracts.
This change imposes three specific requirements on suppliers' strategies:
- Verify the reuse agreement before bidding — For reclaimed water projects, first confirm the reuse volume, water quality requirements, and connection points of park enterprises, then verify the flow capacity and maintenance conditions of transmission pipelines, avoiding "scale based on design values, revenue based on actual values";
- Link investigation, design, and construction into one chain — For pipeline network projects, first use surveying and inspection results to lock down the number of misconnection points and the scope of renovation, then proceed to construction drawing design and pricing, persuading the owner with a verifiable bill of quantities;
- Prioritize regions with dedicated funding support — Funding channels such as the Three Gorges Follow-up Fund and park special bonds determine payment certainty for projects; building trust through small monitoring and investigation orders, then extending to reclaimed water plant and pipeline network general contracting, is a more realistic path.
Conclusion
Within a single week — from Chongqing's 25 kilometers of pipeline network plus a 8000-ton reclaimed water plant, to Jieshou's 6000 cubic meter park supporting facility, to Bazhou's 40万 cubic meter storage tank automation — reclaimed water reuse is transforming from an "environmental supporting facility" into an "independent business format." The significance of this transformation for the industry is: whoever can make reuse volume real will win the next round of orders. For enterprises still bidding with a "wastewater treatment plant mindset," what needs to be supplemented is not process knowledge, but the arithmetic on the water-use side.
About TIANYI TECH: TIANYI TECH (TIANYI LIMITED) specializes in the fields of wastewater treatment, reclaimed water reuse, and water environment governance, providing full-chain services including process design, equipment integration, engineering general contracting, and smart operations to municipal and industrial clients. The company continuously tracks global water treatment policies, technologies, and market dynamics, and is committed to helping clients achieve efficient water resource utilization and sustainable management through reliable solutions. For more information, please visit the company website at www.tianyitech.hk.
Source: Project tender announcements from Chongqing Public Resources Trading Website, Fuyang Public Resources Trading Website, and Xinjiang Bayingolin Public Resources Trading Website (2026年10月13—15日); Water Environment Industry Alliance, "Centralized Release of Reclaimed Water Reuse in Industrial Parks, Pipeline Network Renovation and Operation Services Take Over" (2026年10月19日).
