Water-saving strategies across prefectures should target the manufacturing and agriculture sectors in China

Zongyong Zhang, Yuli Shan, Martin R. Tillotson, Philippe Ciais, Xu Zhao, Dandan Zhao, Hong Yang, Jingwen Huo, Zhao Zeng, Xian Li, Heran Zheng, Bofeng Cai, Wanqing Wang, Wang Kai, Guanlin Li, Geng Niu, Dabo Guan*, Junguo Liu*, Yu Hao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Water scarcity is a global challenge in many emerging economies, including China. China is one of the most extensive freshwater users and has set water efficiency improvement goals for 2030 at the prefecture level. However, no systematic water use and savings comparison exists across prefectures and sectors. Here, we used datasets of water withdrawal for 10,608 industrial and 1715 agricultural sub-sectors for 343 prefectures, and explored the opportunities to reduce water use. Results show that 10% of the least water-efficient industrial sub-sectors represent a disproportionate 46% water use. 18.9 km3 (±3.2%) water saving in industry and 50.3 km3 (±2.3%) in agriculture could be achieved, equivalent to Russia’s annual demand. A minority of sectors, including cloth(ing)- and chemical-manufacturing, rice-, vegetable- and fruit-cultivation, could contribute the most to water savings. Our study is essential for identifying water use and efficiency information for individual prefectures and sectors.

Original languageEnglish
Article number349
JournalCommunications Earth and Environment
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2025
Externally publishedYes

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