(May 4, 2011) The Beijing municipal government will tighten controls on water consumption by enterprises this year to ensure they continue to economize on water usage, a Beijing Water Authority official said Tuesday.

Cheng Jing, Director of the Beijing Water Authority, said during an interview on Beijing Public Service Radio that the capital would implement stringent management of water resources, including the water pipe replacement program that will gradually replace the old pipelines to ensure the water quality during the central government’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

Because of the 12 consecutive years of drought in Beijing, a 20-percent reduction of rainfall over the last five years, and a 70-percent drop in reservoir inflows, the average per capita water supply in Beijing is only 1/13 of the world’s per capita supply. The problem has worsened because the government has postponed the completion of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project to 2014, Cheng said. The project involves diverting water from rivers in the south to the dry northern regions.

It is reported that the Beijing municipal government now will control the total annual amount of water used by 80 percent of enterprises around the capital in accordance with water quotas issued by the Water Authority. Any excess water used will be progressively marked up, the report said.

The restrictions will be extended to all enterprises in Beijing within the next two years.

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m.cri.cn, May 4, 2011