China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) are jointly compiling the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) for national seawater utilization in a bid to expand fiscal input channel on seawater desalination, said Lei Bo, an SOA official, on September 7.
The daily output of China's 121 seawater desalination projects reached more than 1 million tonnes in total by the end of 2015, according to an official report.
Experts noted that though China's seawater desalination has made rapid progress, it has still lagged behind the international level.
The report showed that China's daily output represented less than 1.25 percent of the world's daily production volume, which totaled 86.55 million tonnes as of the end of 2015.
Of China's desalinated water, 67.14 percent has been used for industrial purposes, and the rest for residential use, said the report.
Xin Hongmei, an official with the SOA said that the price on desalinated water lies between 5 yuan per tonne and 8 yuan per tonne, which is much higher than that of the tap water.
Meanwhile, the electricity price has also driven up seawater desalination costs. In most of the coastal areas, electricity consumed by seawater desalination will be charged according to industrial electricity price. At present, some regions are trying to reduce electricity costs on seawater desalination.
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